Re: [OPE-L] How the imputed rental value of owner-occupied housing can boost GDP

[Jerry Levy <Gerald_A_Levy@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Jurriaan:

Very interesting.   I wonder:  can this increasing % contribution of OOH to
GDP be seen as a refection of  the *housing bubble* in  US GDP?

In solidarity, Jerry


> 1960 OOH =  31.3  GDP =  526.4  percentage contribution of OOH to GDP =
> 5.9%
> 1970 OOH =  61.3  GDP = 1,038.5 percentage contribution of OOH to GDP =
> 5.9%
> 1980 OOH  = 178.4 GDP =   2,789.5 percentage contribution of OOH to GDP =
> 6.4%
> 1985 OOH  = 280.8 GDP =  4,220.3 percentage contribution of OOH to GDP =
> 6.7%
> 1990 OOH =  412.8 GDP  =  5,803.1  percentage contribution of OOH to GDP =
> 7.1%
> 1995 OOH  = 531.2 GDP = 7,397.7 percentage contribution of OOH to GDP =
> 7.2%
> 2004  OOH = 1,145.2 GDP = 11,734.3 percentage contribution of OOH to GDP =
> 9.8%
> As you can see,  the fraction keeps creeping up, and soon it will be
double
> what it was in 1970, first breaking that magic 10% of US GDP barrier,
> especially given that home ownership among the US population has, with
easy
> credit, strongly increased (in 2004, there were 112 million US households
of
> which 77 million were privately owned, i.e. 68.8%. In 1976, the earliest
> year for which I could find census data, it was about 42.7%.
> So anyway, as you can see, just as with business enterprises, if more
people
> *own* homes rather than *rent* them, official total productivity measures
> increase, and official total net output and GDP goes up.