Sixty-two (62%) percent of Americans say that purchasing a home is a good investment over the next ten years. The Homebuilder Confidence Index improved for the third month in a row in December.
Existing home inventory stands at a 7.0-month supply and new home inventory stands at a six-month supply, considered healthy by historic standards. Cash buyers are on the rise -- in 2006 they accounted for 19% of all home purchases; preliminary estimates call for that ratio to reach 38% this year.
The National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index, which measures market health by benchmark improvements in housing and employment, featured 20 new improving markets in December when 21 states and the District of Columbia were represented, up from 14 states in November.
Last but not least, the Q3 homeownership rate rose to 66.3%, up from 65.9% in the previous quarter. The rate is nearly identical to that of 2000 and higher than that of 1990 when it stood at 64.2%. In other words, the “new normal” mirrors the “old normal,” a condition that sustained until the recent housing market aberrances pushed the envelope until it tore . . .
This blog is an excerpt from Bowden's Market Barometer's 2011 year-end edition.
