Today, Case Shiller released their housing price index data for January 2015 which showed that house prices rose 4.4 percent from December one year ago for the 10-city composite, 4.6 percent for the 20-city composite, and 4.5 percent for the national index. Last week NAR reported growing prices in January and February. Price growth in […]
NAR released a summary of pending home sales data showing that February’s pending home sales index is up 3.1% from last month and improved 12.0% from a year ago which is a good start for the spring months. Pending sales are homes that have a signed contract on them but have yet to close. They […]
In a monthly REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey, NAR asks REALTORS®: “How do you view buyer traffic in your market?”. The map below shows the buyer traffic index by state. An index above 50 indicates that more REALTOR® respondents viewed traffic conditions as “strong” compared to those who viewed conditions as “weak.” In many states, there […]
The Federal Reserve Board of New York released its update to the Survey of Consumer Expectations this morning. Consumer optimism toward housing has improved significantly at the lower credit spectrum from last spring and remains robust at the middle and upper credit tiers. The positive trend relative to a year ago points to sustained improvement […]
Confidence about the outlook for the next six months improved across all property types, according to the February 2015 REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey. In the single family market, the REALTORS® Confidence Index - Six-month Outlook increased to 75 (72 in January 2015; 68 in February 2014). For the first time, the index for townhomes and […]
The number of people losing jobs continues to remain on a downtrend. Initial unemployment insurance claims that were filed during the week that ended March 21 totaled 282,000 (seasonally adjusted), fewer by 9,000 claims from the previous week’s unrevised level. A decline in the number of unemployment claims indicates fewer job losses and greater job […]
Contracts to buy a newly constructed home soared in February, portending a solid demand going into the spring home buying season. One reason is due to builders bringing less-expensive homes onto the market. Diving into the numbers, new home sales hit 539,000 (annualized pace), which is a big increase of 25 percent from one year […]
NAR released a summary of existing home sales data showing that February’s existing home sales improved from last month and a year ago, while fewer homes on the market drive price growth. February’s sales show a fifth consecutive month of year over year improvement up 4.7%, while sales were up modestly 1.2% from last month. […]
A job is virtually guaranteed in Midland (Texas), Lincoln (Nebraska), and Ames (Iowa), where the unemployment rate is under 3 percent. The unemployment rate can be misleading about the health of the local economy at times. If, for example, many people including the jobless left the area then the unemployment rate can fall since very […]