The MReport Webcast: Thursday 8/27/2015

Multiple market indicators show solid strong stabilization within housing in June, mostly due to employment and current mortgages, according to Freddie Mac's Multi-Indicator Market Index. Housing markets are the strongest they have been since 2008, with the national MiMi surpassing 80 in June. Freddie Mac attributes most of this positive growth to a surge in jobs and mortgages that are kept current in nearly all metros.

The national MiMi value reached 80.3 in June, indicating that the housing market is on the outer stable range. The MiMi saw an increase of 1.33 percent from May to June and a three-month improvement of 2.26 percent. Year-over-year, the MiMi rose 5.41 percent. Although the MiMi value has rebounded 35 since its all-time low in October, it remains much lower than its high of 121.7.

Despite home price increases over the last three years, homes are still very affordable by historical standards, according to the Urban Institute's Monthly Chartbook. The August 2015 edition of the report noted that even if interest rates rose to 6 percent, affordability would be at the long term historical average. Named among the least affordable metros were: San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles metros all fall under the 0.8 debt-to-income ratio. Oppositely, the Cleveland, Ohio metro's DTI ratio is over 1.3, making this market highly affordable.