Real Estate Market Rebound, Certainly Underway

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According to a recent Realty Times article, “The most bearish of Wall Street economic analysts have made the same point for the past 18 months. There's no recovery or rebound in the housing market, they said, until home builders start building again.” The numbers that they have been waiting on are here. Last week the Commerce Department reported an unexpected rise of 7.5 percent in single family home starts during the month of May.

New construction has been one of the weakest segments of the housing market since 2007. May’s increase was the third consecutive monthly gain in single family starts, bringing total starts, including multifamily apartment starts and condos, up by 17.5 percent. Not only were starts significantly up, but so were other key indicators of future home building activity such as single family permits, which saw an increase of 8 percent. Consumer confidence, which is extremely important for home buying, was also up for the fourth consecutive month.

Sales of previously occupied homes rose from April to May, representing the third monthly increase this year. The National Association of Realtors also reported that the number of unsold homes on the market at the end of May fell 3.5 percent to nearly 3.8 million. These numbers provide additional evidence that the real estate market’s much anticipated rebound is clearly underway.

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