The overall health of the U.S. housing market continued to improve in September, reaching a score of 81.3 on Freddie Mac's Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi).
That's an improvement of 0.67% compared with August and an improvement of 1.85% compared with June. What's more, it is an improvement of 5.79% compared with September 2014.
Thirty of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia have MiMi values in a stable range, while 50 of the 100 metro areas tracked have MiMi values in a stable range, according to the report.
States that saw the most improvement in their MiMi scores in September compared with August included Florida (1.58%), Colorado (1.49%), South Carolina (1.45%), Utah (1.22%), and Mississippi (1.21%).
States that saw the most improvement in their MiMi scores in September in comparison with September 2014 included Florida (13.34%), Oregon (11.52%), Colorado (11.31%), Washington (10.49 %) and Nevada (10.14%).
Metropolitan areas that saw the most improvement in their MiMi scores in September compared with August included Denver (1.85%); Colorado Springs, Colo. (1.76%); Kansas City, Mo (1.75%); Stockton, Calif. (1.53%); and Sarasota, Fla. (1.51%).
Metropolitan areas that saw the most improvement in their MiMi scores in September compared with September 2014 included Orlando, Fla. (17.46%); Cape Coral, Fla. (16.78%); Tampa, Fla. (15.93%); Sarasota, Fla. (14.63%) and Denver, Colo. (14.60%).
‘When we observe MiMi's annual improvement, it's clear housing markets continue to recover with some markets firing on all cylinders, others inching along, and the vast majority still working to get back to their long-term benchmark normal range,’ says Len Kiefer, deputy chief economist for Freddie Mac, in a statement. ‘Regardless, nearly twice as many states and metro areas have entered their stable range of housing activity compared to a year ago. Western markets show little signs of slowing down with their local employment pictures continuing to improve and with applications to purchase a home still showing double-digit growth on an annual basis. In many Southern metro areas home sales are improving, which is good news, but their levels still remain depressed.’
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 mortgage and employment.