Real Estate Market
There are many things that can influence property appraisal prices as well as actual home prices according to expert appraiser Abbe Edelman. One of these is the work force. When we discuss the various aspects of the housing market, we find that in general we need to see a specific age group involved in the labor force to see a positive growth in the housing market. The latest job reports that were released in November indicated both bad and good news. The bad news was really only for some areas which saw job growth sitting below average. This is typically the situation in some of the metro areas that were the hardest hit. These particular areas were the ones who saw the biggest decrease in housing prices during the housing bust. They also have had the highest vacancy rates. This is a rough combination. But the good news is that across the board, in November 2012, about three fourths of all adults aged 25 to 34 were gainfully employed. This is up just about a tenth of a percent since September. However, this age group that is so integral to the housing market saw a fall of 8.3% in unemployment for the month of October. AS this group continues to participate in the work force the housing industry continues to improve and this has most experts anticipating further improvements in the housing market.
Anticipating the Best in the Housing Market
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development continues to be very optimistic about the housing market in November 2012. Even though there have been some minor setbacks in the last few weeks, they anticipate that home prices are going to continue in an upward trend. Even when the latest housing crunch occurred, the prices did not fall below the averages in 2009. Really, over the last 3 years housing prices may have taken a few dips and jumps but have continued to move in an upward direction overall. Right now housing experts still expect that this upward trend toward price appreciation will continue.
Although some aspects of the housing market have slowed since this summer, overall the prices for single family dwellings have continued to slowly climb. Here are four of the main housing trends for single family dwellings.
- In September we saw building permits for multifamily housing properties increase almost 10 percent and these housing starts were up 7 percent. These increases brought these to a level that had not been achieved since November of 2008.
- Remarkably, the increase of single family housing units, as well as the number of new building permits has continued to rise for 17 months in a row. In September, they were up another 3.6 percent. This is the highest level that they have been at in the last 4 years. The flip side of this is that even with all the recent increases, they are still 69 percent lower than the pre-recession numbers that were achieved in November 2005.
- Over the last 6 consecutive months, existing single family housing units have continued to inch upward. It’s slow improvement but in August they were up .88 percent. Although new construction prices took a 3.2 percent decrease in September, those numbers are 1% higher than they were in September of 2011.
- In September, new sales of single family dwellings increased by 5.7 percent. Even though September’s volume was up 27% from where it was this time last year, it is still an amazing 72% below the pre-recession market of July 2005.
The Good and the Bad
The bottom line for the real estate market in November 2012 is that there are some good things going on and some bad things as well. It is certain that at this point the market continues to make improvements. It’s a very slow growth, but it if slowly improving. On the other hand, even with the growth we have seen in the last years, we are not even close to pre-recession numbers. The good thing is that the housing market in the US is at least steadily improving, albeit very slowly.
