The health of the U.S. housing market continued to improve November, according to Freddie Mac’s Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) report.
The index score as of the end of November was 82.5, which represents an improvement of 0.82% compared with October. During the three-month period from September through November, the index score improved by 2.09%.
Missouri led all states in terms of overall improvement in November. As of the end of November, it had entered the outer range of stable housing activity, as per the index. In addition, four cities – Rochester, N.Y.; St. Louis, Mo.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Milwaukee, Wisc. – all moved into the outer range of stable housing activity.
Compared with November 2014, the national MiMi value improved 7.23%. What’s more, compared with the all-time-low index score in October 2010, the national MiMi has rebounded 39% but remains significantly off from its high of 121.7.
In November, 49 of the 50 states and 95 of the top 100 metros were showing an improving three-month trend. At the same time last year, 34 of the 50 states and 69 of the top 100 metro areas were showing an improving three-month trend.
“We saw another strong year-over-year improvement at 7.23 percent in this month’s MiMi – the best 12-month showing in a year,” says Len Kiefer, deputy chief economist for Freddie Mac, in a statement. “The regional variation of housing activity continues to become more pronounced. For example, we’re still seeing declines in oil-dependent housing markets, whereas the hardest hit metros from the Great Recession continue to see some of the best improvement as they recover. And, at the same time, other markets are seeing even stronger improvement because of robust home sales fueled by strong local economies that remain largely affordable for the typical home buyer. And in the short-term, we expect home buyer affordability to remain strong, with mortgage rates continuing to look very attractive to prospective home buyers.”
The index, which was introduced last year, measures the overall strength of the housing market based on four indicators: purchase applications, payment-to-income ratios, percent of borrowers current on their mortgages and employment.