4th Quarter Housing Stats Indicate Steady Real Estate Market Recovery

It’s not a sprint; it’s a marathon, and it has  pushed the United States out of the Recession with its influence on the employment market and loosening credit requirements.  Even though, technically the real estate market was partially responsible for the crash that set in the largest Recession the world has seen since the Great Depression, the recovery of the real estate market was a big part of fixing what was broken with the economy.  However, the upward climb has been, as cautiously predicted by economists, a sometimes painfully slow one as housing has been gaining traction over the course of 1.5 years.  Once the bottom was hit, and the market “turned” back upwards, the growth has been unstoppable which is why 4th quarter, 2014 housing stats indicate steady real estate market recovery numbers instead of “record-breaking” substantial growth.  The only sharp increases that the recovering home market has seen were the unprecedented jumps in home values for many months during 2013 and 2014.  Rising house prices were good news for existing homeowners looking to sell or existing homeowners trying to get out from “underwater” in their existing home loans, but they were a cautionary tale for Wall Street which feared a “double-dip” Recession.

As home prices have leveled off, and mortgage interest rates have continued to remain low, and existing and new home sales have seen record-breaking months; all signs point to the real estate market returning to normal levels in a couple to a few years from now.  Even though this may not seem fast enough for some people, it is still really good news for the struggling economy and job market.  Housing affordability wnet up to 62.8% of new and existing homes for a “typical” family in the US earning approximately $63,900 in household income in the 4th quarter.  The Leading Markets Index (LMI) which measures a comparison of current market conditions to “normal” market conditions – Pre-Recession – showed that 69% of the 350 tested markets showed improvement of real estate conditions from 4th quarter, 2013 to 4th quarter 2014.  11 markets have met or exceeded normal conditions in 2014.  Finally, new home sales in January, 2015, went down only .2% from the previous month which is definitely a good sign as the harsh winter conditions should have vastly affected these numbers.  The supply of new homes on the market to sell was only a 5.4 month supply which is considered normal and sustainable.

Overall, the real estate market continues to move steadily forward with gains and increases occurring either every month or every quarter according to what is being predicted by economists.  The only way to turn this marathon back into a sprint would if there were tremendous recovery signs in the United States employment market which include substantial wage increases, people flooding back into the job market, the availability of full time employment, and a jump in the creation of new jobs.  This, more than anything, would create a stronger and faster recovering real estate market nationwide.

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