...Every year, young adults leave the nest, couples divorce, foreigners immigrate and roommates separate, all helping drive economic growth when they furnish and refurbish their new homes. Under normal circumstances, each time a household is formed it adds about $145,000 to output that year as the spending ripples through the economy, estimates Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics
But with the poor job market and uncertain recovery, hundreds of thousands of Americans...have tabled their moves. Even before the recession began, young people were leaving home later; now the bad economy has tethered them there indefinitely...
"Increased housing demand definitely has multiplier effects throughout the economy," said Gary D. Painter, a professor at the University of Southern California and director of research for the university's Lusk Center for Real Estate. "We have these sort of missing potential households," he said, which also means "missing" sales and jobs in industries like retail, construction and manufacturing...
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