By Dees Stribling | Multi-Housing News Online
The University of Michigan reported on Friday that its consumer sentiment index for July came in at 85.1, an improvement from June’s final reading of 84.1, and also up from the mid-July reading of 83.9. In fact, the end-of-July reading is the highest the index has been since July 2007, when the recession was still just a distant rumble on the horizon.
The increase was unexpected. Though sentiment has more-or-less on an upward track since the worst of the recession ended—and especially since the housing 
market started to recover—there’s also been a lot of backsliding. The most pronouncing bump in the road was during the summer of 2011, when a default by the United States, while perhaps never a real possibility, was nevertheless being suggested by less responsible members of Congress.
Over the decades, the sentiment index has been fairly consistent in tracking the economic health of the country. The recessions of the late 1970s and early ’80s saw steep drops, with a recovery during the later ’80s Reagan-era prosperity. There was a sharp downturn in the early ’90s followed by much higher sentiment during the Clinton-era prosperity. The mid-2000s were a bit lower than mid- to late 1980s, and of course sentiment took a hit in 2008 that it hasn’t recovered from yet.
