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LIST OF IMPROVING MARKETS HITS
NEW RECORD
The National Association of Home Builders
(NAHB)/First American Improving Markets
Index (IMI) reached its highest level on record
in September with a little more than 80 percent
of markets qualifying as "improving."
The index tracks 361 metropolitan areas for
improvement in housing permits, employment,
and house prices. Markets must demonstrate
improvement in all three areas for six
consecutive months to make it on the list.
Of the 291 markets that made it onto the
latest Improving Markets Index, 242 were
repeats from the previous month, and 49 were
new to the list.
Five markets dropped off the list over the
past month. Those markets include Kankakee,
Illinois; Burlington, North Carolina;
Jacksonville, North Carolina; Winston, North
Carolina; and Danville, Virginia.
"While there is still plenty of room for
growth, this is an excellent indication of
how the housing recovery has begun to take
hold across more geographical areas," said
Rick Judson, chairman of NAHB and a
homebuilder from Charlotte, North Carolina.
The NAHB pointed out that markets new to
the index spanned several regions of the country,
including such metros as Macon, Georgia; St.
Cloud Minnesota; Brownsville, Texas; Spokane,
Washington; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
However, NAHB's chief economist,
David Crowe, pointed out that "[t]he dramatic
increase in markets qualifying for the IMI
in September was partly due to a recent
improvement in the way that Freddie Mac
measures home prices." NAHB relies on
Freddie Mac's housing data for its index.
"Even so, the broadened list of metros on the
IMI continues to demonstrate the slow but steady
gains that individual housing markets are making
to bolster the national outlook," he added.
In fact, all 50 states have at least one county
represented on the index, and 23 states have at
least one new market on the index.
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Salinas, California, outranks all other metros
on the index in terms of permit growth from its
trough with a 44.2 percent rise.
Phoenix, Arizona, ranked highest for price
growth with a 41.5 percent increase from its
trough.
Midland, Texas, has experienced the
greatest employment growth of any market on
the index—a 33.5 percent rise from the market
trough.
STAT INSIGHT
-34%
Annual decline in the
nation's foreclosure
presale inventory rate
in August.
Source: Lender Processing Services
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