No Worries Over the Housing Market

If you've been worrying about the current state of the housing market, well, you can stop now.

Here's Bespoke Investment Group's summary of yesterday's data release:

• Turning to housing, today the Census updated Q4 results for homeownership and vacancy of the housing stock.

• We cannot understate this: these statistics are consistent only with a strong housing market.

• The homeownership rate ticked up to a new cycle high, driven by solid household formation (despite large outflows from rental housing occupancy).

• The rental vacancy rate is now the lowest since Q2 1985 after our seasonal adjustment, while the homeowner vacancy rate is the lowest since Q3 1994; there is little available housing inventory.

• Vacant unit counts continue to fall, with the South, Midwest, and Northeast recording the lowest number of vacant units since pre-crisis years.

• Total occupied housing units are rising at a pace of almost 2.5% annualized, thanks to the strongest gains in the growth of owned housing units since the pre-crisis boom.

• Simply put, this is not data that makes sense in a weak housing market.