Although the improvement in auto sales has greatly outstripped the housing recovery, that trend should flip in the coming years, says Morningstar's Bob Johnson.
Bob Johnson: This week's chart is a tale of two recoveries: the recovery in the auto industry and the recovery in the housing industry. Both of these segments comprise about 3% of the economy and have knock-on employment effects throughout the entire economy.
You can see from the chart that both of these industries suffered from 2005-08--coming to a real crescendo when things really collapsed in 2008. Since then, both segments have improved nicely. However, the auto industry has done far better. The auto industry is now at its previous high, at right around 17 million units per year. Meanwhile, the housing industry is running at about half the level it did pre-recession. It's running at about 1 million units a year right now, which is half of the 2.2 million we hit at the peak. So, we've really come back, but not nearly as far because credit has been much easier in the auto industry than in the housing industry.
Looking forward, we expect a changing of the guard. We expect the housing industry to continue to accelerate. Meanwhile, the auto industry will continue to plateau.
