Mortgage Bankers Releases Study Showing Drop in Households

A study released by the Mortgage Bankers Association shows 1.2 million households were lost between 2005 and 2008 despite a population increase of 3.4 million in the area examined. The study, "What Happens to Household Formation in a Recession," was sponsored by the Research Institute for Housing America and conducted by a USC professor. "It is clear the most recent recession impacted individuals' decisions to move out on their own and caused many Americans to join already formed households," said Gary Painter, associate professor in the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California. "Due to data limitations, my analysis had to focus on household formation as of 2008. Clearly, given the depth of the downturn in 2009, and the ongoing weakness in the job market through the beginning of this year, this study gives no reason to expect that household formation has picked up at all."