Is the ‘Housing Market Recession’ Over?

2022’s housing market downturn appears to have ended, multiple sources said — but new construction is seeing a “slowdown.” 

The Details: Home prices, which stabilized in recent months, are rising due to a shortage of pre-owned homes on the market. New single-family housing construction is rising in response; despite an overall drop in housing starts in June, single-family building permit applications hit a 12-month-high. 

For Context: As remote workers moved into homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, housing demand outstripped supply, causing prices and construction to rise until late 2022, when the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes drove up mortgage rates. Some worried higher interest rates might lead housing prices to drop from their historic highs, but prices have risen slightly since early 2023. New housing construction also may relate to a push by city and state governments to remove zoning roadblocks to new construction, which activists say will lower costs by raising supply.

How the Media Covered It: Some coverage was optimistic, but most articles painted a more complicated picture. The Washington Post (Lean Left bias) attributed faster home construction to “mended supply chains for materials from tiles to garage doors.” The Hill (Center bias) framed rising prices and low supply as inflationary and bad for home buyers. While Washington Examiner (Right bias) focused on low overall construction in June, Reuters (Center bias) focused on higher single-family construction permits.