2015 may be another slow growth year for Michigan’s housing industry.
A few years ago, as home sales slowly started to recover from the depths of the Great Recession, analysts were predicting a return to strong housing sales by 2015.
Now that 2015 is a week away, those expectations are not quite as high.
Lindsey Piegza is the chief economist with Sterne Agee.
She says potential home buyers in Michigan and nationally remain under significant amount of pressure from stagnant wages and small savings. She adds that many potential home buyers still only have limited access to credit.
Piegza says many young people are having a hard time buying their first home, because they have large college loan debts.
“On the horizon we continue to take small steps in the right direction,” says Piegza, “Eventually we will be able to talk about a robust housing market.”
But Piegza says that might be another five to 10 years.
In the meantime, more people are expected to get into the housing market next year, prices are expected to continue their slow recovery and interest rates on home loans are expected to rise slightly in 2015.
