NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The seeds of a housing recovery have already been planted, according to a report released Monday. In fact, many of them were sown starting around 1979.

According to an annual state of the nation's housing from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies, once the U.S. emerges from recession, strong demographic trends will restore health to the housing market. The key is echo boomers, the 75 million Americans born between 1979 and 1995.

"There will be 5 million more echo boomers than there were boomers when they first started swelling housing markets," said Eric Belsky, executive director of the Joint Center.

As a result, household growth during the next 10 years should range between 12.5 million and 14.8 million, according to the report. All those new households mean demand for many new housing units.

"This is a powerful, powerful underpinning of future demand," said Belsky.