How Strong or Weak is the housing market ..today?

3 key indicators of the housing markets Strength or Weakness

1.) construction starts

2.)existing-home sales

3.) delinquency+ foreclosure rate

In October 2012, all three housing measures improved: construction starts increased again, existing-home sales rose, and the delinquency + foreclosure rate dropped considerably. 

Construction starts rose from last month’s high. Starts in October were at an 894,000 annualized rate, up 4% month-over-month after a big jump in September and up 42% year-over-year.

Existing-home sales recovered in October. After slipping in September, existing home sales rose 2% month-over-month to 4.79 million in October and are now just a bit below their post-crisis high of 4.83 million in August..

The delinquency + foreclosure rate dropped to a post-crisis low. In October, 10.64% of mortgages were delinquent or in foreclosure, down sharply from 11.27% in September and from 11.88% in October 2011. The combined delinquency + foreclosure rate is at its lowest level in four years 

Add it all together and what do you get, a recovering market, not recovered, recovering. Remember home prices fell sharply over that last 4 years and the current trend shows that  home prices have stopped the downward spiral that began in  2009 and have started to show signs of positive growth.

What does that mean to buyer and sellers for 2013.

 Buyer's inventory will remain low as new housing starts take 60-90 days to hit the market  and 1st typical in our area most home sellers do not list till late spring. So Buyer's you need to be working with an aggressive agent who's available to  previewing homes 7 days a week and write offer on site. Great deals are passing some Buyer's as they seem to wait till late day Saturday to preview and by Monday the house is under contract.

Sellers - Great ready to list, if not today as soon as the bubbles have faded in that New Years Eve Toast. Low inventory mean higher demand which means more options (read offers) for you to review. You don't want to wait for New Construction to overtake the market of for the banks to start up the post holiday foreclosure machine and add inventory to the market.  

Have a Real Estate question give me a call I am always here to help.

www.ericgreid.com