Home Buyers Seeing Upward Trends in Real Estate

During the first month of the year 2016, home buyers have a lot to be excited about when considering buying a new home for sale.  Home pricing, consumer confidence, and home construction starts and permits are all up!  The housing market has been seeing a steady incline since it bottomed out between 2009 and 2011.  With sharp, record-breaking price increases in 2012 and 2013, the housing market almost seemed to be expanding too fast for consumer demand, consumer affordability, and consumer credit.  However, home pricing trends have “flattened” in 2014 and 2015 creating stability in the real estate market.

During the month of October, 2015, home prices rose at 6% and 11% depending on which report buyers were seeing.  The Case Shiller (CS) National Home Price Index released by S&P Dow Jones Indices showed an 11% increase in October while the more conservative Home Price Index from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) rose 6%.  Either way, home pricing has stabilized and is on the upswing which is good for both buyers (a smart investment) and sellers.

Meanwhile, the vote of confidence from consumers showed an increase of approximately 4 points in December after 2 months of declining numbers.  The Consumer Confidence Index by the Conference Board rose from 92.6 to 96.5 from November to December.  The index shows that consumer confidence is growing back to pre-Recession levels.

Finally, construction housing starts and permits for 2015 were up 10.8% year-over-year to equal to 1.11 million.  Single-family home starts were up 10.4% and multi-family housing starts were up 11.4%.  The single-family home starts numbers came to 715,300.  Increases were seen in all 4 reported regions of the United States for single-family homes.  Housing permits were also up compared to 2014 by 12% with a total of 1.18 million.  Single-family home permits were up by 7.9%, and multi-family home permits were up by 11.4%.  In December, single-family home permit numbers were up by 1.8% compared to November as well.

All signs point to a solidly recovering housing market nationwide, and here in St. Tammany Parish, the custom home business is thriving with many new exciting projects for 2016.  If you are interested in building or buying a new, custom home, Contact Us at 985-626-7619 or E-mail Info@RonLeeHomes.com.

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