San Francisco Federal Reserve Says Today’s Boom Is Not a Bubble

There are several trends in the housing market that are similar to those on the eve of the Great Recession, worrying some analysts.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the nation’s largest mortgage lenders today are alternative lenders instead of banks, “much as they were in the runup to the Great Recession,” CityLab reports.

But a new report released by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco concludes that the current housing boom may not be a prelude to another bubble.

The current boom, which started after the market hit rock bottom in November 2011, has a median housing price just 8 percent shy of its peak in 2006. But low housing starts, 50 percent below the peak, are one way in which the current boom does not resemble a bubble.

Read more