Study suggests demand for housing will increase significantly over the next decade

A new study suggests Hispanics, baby boomers and millennials will drive one of the largest housing booms in history over the next decade.

The Mortgage Bankers Association recently released Housing Demand: Demographics and the Numbers Behind the Coming Multi-Million Increase in Households, which suggests that demographic and economic changes will drive an additional 13.9 to 15.9 million households to the U.S. housing market by 2024.

If their prediction is correct, this growth in housing could be among the strongest the U.S. has ever seen, according to the report.

Demographics that will impact housing include: 20 million more people age 60 and over than there are today (as boomers age), 4 million fewer people age 45 to 59 (as the boomers are replaced by the smaller crowd of Generation X) and 18 million more people age 18 to 44 (as Generation X is replaced by the larger group of millennials).

“Household formation has been depressed in recent years by a long, jobless recovery and by a lull in the growth of the working age population,” said MBA’s Vice President of Research and Economics Lynn Fisher in the press release. “Improving employment markets will build on major demographic trends – including maturing of baby boomers, Hispanics and millennials – to create strong growth in both owner and rental housing markets over the next decade.”

“When it comes to starting new households, age 35 is the new 25, as younger Americans are spending a longer time in school and delaying major life events like getting married,” added MBA’s Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Research Jamie Woodwell.