Election Year’s Impact On Housing Uncertain
THE CONFIDENCE GAME
Metrostudy, September 12, 2016Expect a roller-coaster ride for consumer sentiment as election-year trends weigh on housing’s still-fragile recovery trajectory.
By John McManus
Elections do a number on consumer sentiment and confidence. Especially the every-four-year kind that result in a chief executive for our country’s government, and hold out the potential, at least, for re-tipped balances among Congressional representatives and partisan power.
Probably the most significant force or factor sitting in the soup of uncertainty ahead that could impact abundantly-evident strong demand for homeownership’s spectrum of new and used house and community options is a blow to consumer confidence.
National Association of Home Builders senior economist Jung Fu watches the most widely accepted measures of consumer confidence, from The Conference Board and the University of Michigan. She’s tracked us to the present, noting that The Conference Board’s latest readings–for August–blipped up for the total Index as well as for component measures for the “present” and “expectations.”