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Freddie Mac's latest Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) report finds the U.S. housing market weak but stabilizing at year's end. The index, released Tuesday, shows that 70 markets are inching upwards, including San Jose and Pittsburgh, which have finally joined the forward momentum.
The national MiMi value stands at 74.5, which is up 0.12 percent from September to October and up 0.42 percent over the past three months. Year-over-year, the national housing market has improved 4.48 percent.
While still well short of the all-time MiMi high of 122.5, reached in June 2006, the national index is markedly better than it was in September 2011, when the housing market was at 60.3.
"When we look at the stability of the housing market we've seen a modest 0.5 percent improvement since the beginning of the year in the national index," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's chief economist. "Housing markets continue to heal across the country with those hardest hit showing the biggest improvement."
The most improved metro areas month-over-month were Kansas City, Memphis, and Atlanta, each up more than 3 percent. Charlotte and Denver—which also improved more than 12 percent year-over-year—were close behind. Year-over-year, Las Vegas improved by nearly 24 percent, while Chicago, Miami, and Riverside, California, each improved more than 12 percent.
Statewise, Colorado, Kentucky, Idaho, Maryland, and North Carolina led month-to-month improvement, each growing by a least 1 percent. Year-over-year Nevada grew 18.95 percent), while Illinois, Florida, Rhode Island, and Colorado each grew by around 10 percent.
According to the index, 13 states, plus the District of Columbia, have MiMi values in a stable range (above 80). North Dakota (95.9) the District of Columbia (94.1), Montana (91.2), Wyoming (91.0), and Hawaii (89.2) made up the top five. Eight of the 50 metro areas Freddie tracks, all west of the Mississipi, have MiMi values in a stable range: San Antonio (89.9), Austin (87.0), Houston (85.3), Los Angeles (84.4), and Salt Lake City (83.1) made up the top five.
According to Nothaft, the news is encouraging, but hardly a cause for champagne just yet.
"Low mortgage rates have helped, but we also need better household income growth," he said. "The employment picture needs to improve more to strengthen wage growth. The good news is we're slowly starting to see this happen in areas like Denver, San Jose, Nashville, and Pittsburgh."
Freddie also is seeing better purchase application activity on a monthly basis in these areas, he said.
