The MReport Webcast: Tuesday 6/23/2015

Housing market watchers have been waiting to see what will happen in parts of the U.S. with heavy oil-related employment, according to CoreLogic’s report on their Insights Blog. The blog writer and senior economist for CoreLogic, Molly Boesel noted that between the fall of 2014 and this spring, oil prices fell 42% causing those who consistently monitor the housing market to wonder about the effect that this will have on the real estate industry.

In April, a state-level employment report showed a month-over-month decrease in employment in Texas and Oklahoma for March 2015. Texas saw non-farm payroll employment drop by 25,400, while Oklahoma saw a drop of 12,900. The County Business Patterns data that focuses on metros that have the largest share of oil-related jobs and examines their house price performance and equity position determined that Midland, Texas had the highest share of oil employment at 26%, while Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Texas had the lowest at 5%.

As first-time buyers enter the housing market, the total number of existing-home sales saw the largest increase in May than it has in nearly six years, according to a report released today by the National Association of Realtors. Total existing-home sales increased by 5.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.35 million in May from an upwardly revised 5.09 million in April. Sales have now seen increased year-over-year for eight consecutive months and are 9.2% above a year ago.