Housing Market Nears Full Economic Recovery

The NAHB/First American Leadings Markets Index (LMI) increased to .99 in Q4 2016, just .01 away from the last level of normality.

NAHB Eye on Housing says that the Index has steadily risen over the last year and is up from a low of .78 in March 2012. The Index factors in single-family housing permits, employment, and home prices.

Those components are at different stages in their recovery, however. In Q4, house prices had a robust score of 1.47, and employment was a tick below normalcy at .98. Single-family permits, though, were lagging at .52.

Similarly, the recovery varies across the country. … House prices have reached or now exceed their last normal period in 327 of the 337 markets tracked. However, permits have recovered in only a handful of markets, 66. The lagging single-family category partly reflects constraints faced by builders.

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