Ryan Avent peers into his crystal ball:
I suspect that as economic conditions improve, twentysomethings living at home will quickly look to move out and start their own households. This, in turn, will support housing demand, housing prices, and housing construction, buoying the initial uptick.
To put this another way, everything comes back to unemployment. If you get steady job growth, many housing concerns (though not all) will begin to take care of themselves. Unfortunately, America has still had only one month of payroll growth since the onset of recession.