Housing market continues to show improvement

Number of improving housing markets increases

 
The number of housing markets across the U.S. that are showing improvement increased 21 percent in November, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said in a recent report.
According to the most recent NAHB/First American Improving Markets Index, the number of improving housing markets expanded from 103 to 125 from October to November.
This is the third straight month of improvement, the NAHB said, and areas showing improvement can be found across 38 different states plus the District of Columbia.
“Not only did 22 additional markets qualify for the improving list in November, but the geographic distribution of included metros expanded from 33 states to 38 (plus the District of Columbia), while 97 out of 103 markets retained their spots on the list from the previous month,” Barry Rutenberg, chairman of the NAHB, said in a statement.
Rutenberg added insight into what the data means and also said that things could be even further along if it weren’t for issues in the lending market.
“This shows that a housing recovery is firmly taking root and helping generate needed jobs and economic growth across much of the country — though we know that this expansion could be even stronger were it not for ongoing challenges including overly tight lending conditions and difficult appraisals,” he said.
As measured by the Index, metropolitan areas are considered to have “shown improvement” if housing permits, employment and house prices have all shown positive trends for six straight months.
“The solid increase in the number of improving housing markets this month illustrates the degree to which the housing recovery has gained momentum since we initiated the IMI last year,” David Crowe, NAHB Chief Economist, said in a statement.
“Compared to the 30 markets that made the list as of November 2011, we now have 125, which is about one-third of all the markets surveyed for this index.”