Top Story
Housing prices for existing single-family homes continue to rise, but the growth has progressively slowed since early summer, this according to the November release of the ULI Real Estate Business Barometer—a monthly online resource that tracks key economic and financial trends, published by the ULI Center for Capital Markets and Real Estate. Each month, the Terwilliger Center highlights selected data housing trends from the Barometer. Here’s what caught our eye in the November release:
- Multifamily building permits jumped 9.6 percent to 286,000—the highest level since August 2008. Multifamily housing starts also gained—up 7 percent in September—to a level not seen since November 2008.
- Developers of single-family homes continue on a positive streak—the number of permits increased for the 17th-consecutive month, up 3.6 percent in September and is at its highest level in four years. Even with these positive gains, single-family housing starts are still 69 percent below the pre-recession high in November 2005.
- For the sixth-consecutive month, existing single-family home prices rose slightly, up only 0.88 percent in August. While the prices of new single-family homes declined 3.2 percent in September to $242,400—still an impressive 12 percent increase from September 2011.
- Sales of new single-family homes increased by 5.7 percent in September to 389,000. September’s volume is up 27 percent from September 2011; however, they are still 72 percent below the pre-recession high in July 2005.
Bottom-line: the housing market continues to show signs of growth. While we are not yet close to pre-recession levels, the nation’s housing is marking a slow, but steady recovery. To view a complete snapshot of current housing trends, please visit the ULI Real Estate Business Barometer at http://urbanland.uli.org/EconomyMarketsTrends/Barometer.