The Demand Institute, a recently created New York-based nonprofit organization that defines itself as having a ‘mission to illuminate where consumer demand is headed around the world,’ is predicting that home valuations will start to climb again while ‘adjacent consumer industries will capture significant new growth opportunities in 2012 and beyond.’
In a new report entitled ‘The Shifting Nature of U.S. Housing Demand,’ The Demand Institute forecasts that average home prices will increase by up to 1% in the second half of this year and by as much as 2.5% by 2014. From 2015 to 2017, the study projects annual increases between 3% and 4%, with some markets seeing gains of 5% or more.
‘In these initial years, the prime driver of recovery won't be new home construction, but rather demand for rental properties,’ says Louise Keely, chief research officer at The Demand Institute and a co-author of the report. ‘This is a remarkable change from previous recoveries. It is a measure of just how severe the Great Recession has been that such a wide swath of Americans had to delay, scale back, or put off entirely their dreams of home ownership.’
Launched in February, The Demand Institute is jointly operated by The Conference Board and Nielsen. The new report can be downloaded from The Demand Institute's website.