Here is an interesting set of charts on labor pool statistics and housing. First consider a chart of various civilian population numbers.


Civilian Population, Workforce, Employment




The civilian population is steadily rising. However, none of that increase in recent years is looking to buy a home.

Those not in the labor force are not looking
Those unemployed are not looking
Those afraid of losing their job are not looking
Those in a house and underwater are not looking
Those just out of school and deep in school debt are not looking
Those facing retirement may be looking to sell or downsize
Mortgage standards are much tighter for those who are looking

New Home Sales



Here is an interesting set of charts on labor pool statistics and housing. First consider a chart of various civilian population numbers.






Those struggling to understand why home sales are so bad and why they are unlikely to improve much soon, need only consider the previous set of bullet points.

Annualized New Home Sales to Civilian Labor Force Ratio






People do not realize how much of our economy depends on the housing market.

Think of 1,000,000 homes sold in the mid '00's at an average of $290,000 each and you have $290,000,000,000 in GDP.

Today we are down to $200,000 homes and 284,000 of them. That is $56,800,000,000 in GDP, a decrease of $233,200,000,000 plus whatever multiplier, if any, you want to assign to that.