Housing and Job Growth Redux

I found the following charts interesting in relation to my earlier discussion of the MHP of housing growth holding back job growth. First, starting with the Globe's own graphic, jobs in the Boston area dropped in the time period reviewed, this did not happen in any of the other metropolitan areas reviewed. Where is the tipping point? Where between the 5.7% housing growth in Metro Boston and the 6.9% housing growth in the Phildelphia Metro area do we move from job growth to job loss? The data presented does not support such a conclusion. The graphic also does not support other arguments that the state needs a 1% annual housing growth to support a strong economy.

Now for the other graphics.

The Case-Shiller Index is used to guage the health of the housing market. Here are the Case-Shiller indices for Boston and three of the cities (Source: NY Times) we were compared to (I do not have indices for all of the cities).

The bottom line is, just as I have been saying, these other areas over built. They are now feeling the impact of these actions. While we have not been insulated by building fewer houses, we also are not in as dire condition as areas such as San Diego with builders failing with thousands of homes under construction.