Housing Market Index

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeThe National Association of Home Builders issues a monthly survey to it’s members where they are asked to rate the economy and general market conditions.   The housing market index is a weighted average of present sales of new homes, sale of new homes expected in the next six months, and traffic of prospective buyers in new homes.

Home builders are having an extremely difficult time this recession, reflected in the national home builders’ housing market index which plummeted to 9 in November, under October’s 14 which had until now been the record low.

Data on new and existing home sales for October will be released at the end of the month and so far, including this report and the pending home sales index posted earlier in the month, things point to a reversal of September’s higher numbers.

Declining home prices tied to foreclosure and short sales and swelling supply are apparently not yet attracting buyers in many areas.  The credit squeeze is still an issue for many buyers.

In the Burbank/San Fernando Valley real estate area I have seen alot of activity and multiple offers in the200k-400k range.   There are qualified buyers and investors out there that will bid on properties, if the price is right.  Lots of questions remain, including whether the banks will work with home owners facing foreclosures and short sales.

We also need to factor in the length of the current credit squeeze and the employment situation for the Los Angeles area.  If all of these factors align positively then we’ll start to come out of the current market condition, either way we’re in for a prolonged recovery, it’s just a question of how fast we can come out of it.

This entry was posted on 20. November 2008 at 00:00 and is filed under Economic Market Reports, Blogroll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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