Case says home prices may continue to fall in the near term but they are still way off their lows. Home prices fell 25 percent or more from 2005 and 2006, he notes, emphasizing that housing has started its recovery. The reasons that prompted the housing market bubble to burst — too much construction, inflated prices and a reduced number of households — no longer pose a threat to the market. Housing starts for March fell nearly six percent from the prior month to a rate of 654,000, a sharp drop from the two million new homes that were being built between 2003 and 2005.
Even with home prices at 10-year lows and 30-year fixed mortgage rates under four percent, more Americans are renting their homes, signaling a new epoch in the U.S.
"The owner occupancy rate is very very low," Case says. "We've added seven million households in the last seven years and six million of those are rentals. The recent trend underscores the possibility that the "American dream is just gone."