Job growth could start boost in housing

While the housing construction market has been one of the slower parts of the economic recovery this year, a jump in job growth could drive housing start levels to a three-year high next year.

David Crowe, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders told Bloomberg that if jobs pick up slightly, he expects housing starts to top 700,000 in 2011, which should help create even more jobs, and so forth.

"This is an ugly economic cycle," Crowe told the source. "We need job creation to get people comfortable with buying a home. If they do that, we'll create jobs that will reinforce that home buying and fuel additional job growth."

In a similar scenario, Charles Lieberman, former head of monetary analysis at the Fed Bank of New York, told Bloomberg that nationwide jobs could increase by 200,000 per month in 2011.

That kind of growth would be a big boost to new home sales, both in the Houston real estate market and nationwide. According to the Commerce Department, new home sales in November were more than 21 percent below their levels from a year ago.