The U.S. housing market is strengthening after a tough winter, according to economists at a Realtors convention in Washington.
But even as the short-term outlook brightens, they remain worried about a long-term problem with "missing" young buyers.
"There really are serious issues in the first-time-buyer market," Eric Belsky, managing director of Harvard's Joint Center of Housing Studies, told the National Association of Realtors on Thursday.
He estimates that nearly 3 million more young adults are living with their parents compared with 2007 — before the Great Recession had settled in.
Many would like to strike out on their own now, "but their incomes just aren't high enough to make it work," Belsky said. "You have a very stressed group in their 20s."
Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, said the trade group is expecting "steady improvement" for the housing market through 2015, but agreed that for many would-be buyers — particularly younger ones — getting a mortgage "is still tough."
One decade ago, the homeownership rate for young adults under age 35 was 43.6 percent. Today, the rate is just over 36 percent, according to U.S. Census data.