Improving Markets List Hits New High, but There's a Catch

The list of improving housing marketsrnmaintained by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and FirstrnAmerican Title Insurance Company appears to have broken out of its recentrndoldrums, surging by a net total of 44 metro areas in September after decliningrnfor five out of the last six months.  Some of the gains however may be the result of<bchanges in one method of compiling data.</p

A total of 291 metropolitan areas acrossrnthe country now qualify as improving housing markets, the highest point for thernImproving Markets Index (IMI) since it was initiated two years ago.  Forty-nine markets were added to the list,rn242 retained their positions from August, and five were dropped.<br /<br /The IMI identifies metropolitan areas that have shown improvement from theirrnrespective troughs in housing permits, employment and house prices for at leastrnsix consecutive months.  NAHB usesrnconstruction data from the U.S. Census Bureau, home price data from FreddiernMac, and employment information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics inrncompiling the list.</p

“Just over 80 percent of the 361 metrosrntracked by our index are showing consistent growth in three key measures ofrnhousing market strength – prices, permits and employment,” explained NAHB ChairmanrnRick Judson.  “While there is stillrnplenty of room for growth, this is an excellent indication of how the housingrnrecovery has begun to take hold across more geographic areas.”<br /<br /"The dramatic increase in markets qualifying for the IMI in September wasrnpartly due to a recent improvement in the way that Freddie Mac measures homernprices, which resulted in stronger gains than previously reported,” noted NAHBrnChief Economist David Crowe. “Even so, the broadened list of metros on the IMIrncontinues to demonstrate the slow but steady gains that individual housingrnmarkets are making to bolster the national outlook.” <br /<br /"With every state now able to claim at least one county that’s part of anrnimproving metro, and 23 states having charted at least one new entry inrnSeptember alone, prospective home buyers have good reason to be encouraged byrnthis news,” said Kurt Pfotenhauer, vice chairman of First American. </p

Recent additions to the list were suchrngeographically diverse locations as Macon, St. Cloud, Brownsville, Spokane, andrnMilwaukee.  Of the five cities that fellrnfrom the list three were in North Carolina – Jacksonville, Winston, andrnBurlington.  Also dropped were Kankakee,rnIllinois and Danville, Virginia.

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