Recovery Hits A Plateau ~ Trulia Housing Barometer | Real Estate ...

Posted on June 27, 2012 by holliehansen

Each month Trulia?s Housing Barometer charts how quickly the housing market is moving back to ?normal.? We summarize three key housing market indicators: construction starts (Census), existing-home sales (NAR) and the delinquency-plus-foreclosure rate (LPS First Look). For each indicator, we compare this month?s data to (1) how bad the numbers got at their worst and (2) their pre-bubble ?normal? levels.

All three indicators took a step backward in May 2012:

?Construction starts slid back for the month, but up for the year. Starts dropped from an upwardly revised 744,000 in April to 708,000 in May, a 4.8% month-over-month decline. But starts are up 28.5% year over year. Still, construction has a long way to go: starts are just 23% of the way back to normal.

?Existing home sales also decreased. Dropping from 4.62 million in April to 4.55 million in May, home sales are not quite halfway back (45%) to their normal level from their worst point during the bust.

?The delinquency + foreclosure rate ticked upward. (Remember, on this measure, lower is better.) In May, 11.32% of mortgages were delinquent or in foreclosure, inching up from 11.26% in April and 11.23% in March, though down from 12.07% a year ago. The delinquency + foreclosure rate is 36% of the way back to normal, ahead of starts but behind sales.

Averaging these three back-to-normal percentages together, the market is now 35% of the way back to normal, compared with just 19% back to normal a year ago.

The housing market recovery has hit a plateau, remaining in the 33-37% range since January after making several jumps in the second half of 2011.

Of course these statistics are going to vary from region to region, but for the most part we can say that for Northwest Florida we are seeing positive recovery in all areas of the market. For more information on how you may qualify for a new home or to get a free marketing evaluation of your home or property, please call Hollie Hansen at 850.258.2602 or email me at holliesellshomes@gmail.com.

This entry was posted in Agent Stories, Counts Real Estate, Market Watch, Real Estate and tagged Buying, construction, homes . census, housing market, Mortgages, new homes, Selling. Bookmark the permalink.

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