Tag Archives: Housing Market

With more Americans worried about where the economy is headed, fewer are optimistic about the prospect of selling their homes, according to Fannie Mae’s July National Housing Survey, released Friday.

Although this increase may seem marginal, this one point rise up places the market closer to the one point goal, indicating that it has returned to normal. In addition, 66 percent of markets have shown improvement year-over-year.

Sales of new single-family homes rose 18 percent year-over-year in June with a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 482,000 compared to June 2014's pace of 408,000, according to the survey.

"May and June existing home sales have both been very encouraging for anyone looking for proof that the housing market is in recovery, and our July Nowcast indicates that this positive momentum will continue into July," Auction.com EVP Rick Sharga said.

The 79.2 value for the latest MiMi, which was released Wednesday, indicated a weak overall housing market but improved by 0.71 percentage points from April to May and by more than 2 percentage points over the three-month period from the beginning of March to the end of May. The MiMi value improved by more than 4 percentage points year-over-year in May, according to Freddie Mac.

The survey found that home price change expectations rose to 3.5 percent, their highest level this year, and median earnings growth as well as household spending growth expectations increased from the prior month. Median consumer inflation expectations at both the short and medium term horizon continue to be stable, while labor market expectations also continued to improve and credit availability expectations were largely unchanged.

The increasing number of first-time homebuyers is another factor driving up the demand for housing, according to Realtor.com. Many of those first-time buyers are millennials who have been sidelined by the challenging market conditions.

Optimism among consumers about the housing market has reached new survey highs and strong job and income growth are making consumers appear more favorable in the selling market, indicating a possible increase in the existing home supply.

In January, the company forecasted total national housing market growth for 2015 to reach 1.3 percent, more than five percent lower than growth for 2014 at 6.7 percent. The adjusted forecast presumes that year-end national growth will come in at 2.6 percent, falling within the projected range of 1 percent to 3 percent.

Freddie Mac's report of more stabilization nationwide in the housing market was right in line with the GSE's economic outlook for June 2015, released just one day earlier, which showed that Americans may be ready to take on more mortgage debt due to low debt servicing costs and improved household balance sheets.