Lakeshore Analytics

Negative residential investment bodes ill for recovery

If you’re interested in the role housing plays in a broader economic recovery, check out this paper from Harvard’s Joint Center on Housing Studies (“Frequently asked questions about the role of housing in recessions and recoveries,” August 2009). Though it’s a year old, it still captures some data from this recession and compares it to [...]

Permits and housing starts unchanged in almost 2 years

About 20 new single family homes have been permitted in the city for August and September, less than a third of the pre-recession levels. After briefly flirting with single digits, multifamily permits stayed at about 150 units in September. Multifamily permits are more volatile because they are issued in bursts, whereas single family permits are [...]

Job recovery could be 20-40 more months

It will likely take a total of 60 to 80 months for employment to recover from the recession, according to a new chart (above) from Moody’s. (We will attempt to re-create the chart for the Chicago region for the next Chicago Housing Quarterly). So far, we are just shy of 40 months from the start [...]