Dive Brief:

• The housing market is about three-quarters of the way back to “normal,” according to the latest Housing Barometer from Trulia.

• A full housing recovery, the report said, depends on five factors: existing home sales, home prices, the delinquency and foreclosure rate, new construction starts, and the employment rate among young adults.

• The last indicator lagged behind all the others in the fourth quarter of 2014, ending the year 46% of the way back to its pre-recession level. Still, the employment rate of 25- to 34-year-olds was closer to normal at the end of the year than it was in the fall.

Dive Insight:

Jed Kolko, Trulia’s chief economist, noted that the millennial employment rate is “the indicator that the recovery now most depends on.”

Like other housing forecasts, this one expressed some optimism that young adults, who are finding work in greater numbers lately, need jobs so they can move out of their parents’ homes and buy their first properties. But even the increase in employment won’t translate into home sales immediately; saving for a down payment and building credit could take “years,” Kolko predicted.