Great news everyone, new home sales in the US are surging. Sales have increased by 11% after falling for three years. Some say that this is a sign that the housing market has leveled out though others say it will get worse before it gets better. Falling prices and mortgage rates coupled with government incentives is the supposed driving force behind the increasing demand. Well my question is why is this happening? Why when so many homes sit empty throughout this country are we having a surge of demand for new homes? In a fairly recent census report, 18.6 million houses are said to lay empty (though this breaks down into several categories) while 759,101 remain homeless. This makes me wonder how far off have we diverged in the use of houses from their original intent.

Staff writer - tim holborn