Market Studies

The housing market is slowly but surely inching closer to normal levels with the help of economic and job growth, according to the National Association of Home Builders/First American Leading Markets Index released Thursday.

Closing costs on a mortgage loan have lowered over the past year, making purchasing a home less costly. According to Bankrate.com research, mortgage closing costs dropped 7 percent over the past year.

U.S. mortgage holders possess the highest levels of non-mortgage related debt in over ten years, according to Black Knight Financial Services' June 2015 Mortgage Monitor report.

Although the housing market appears to be 'normalizing' for the first half of 2015, middle tier home price appreciation is still lagging far behind its 2006 peak level, according to Clear Capital's Home Data Index Market Report with data through July 2015.

Using two both new home sales figures and new home sales share, CoreLogic determined that eight out of the 10 hottest markets for new home sales are located in the South, let by Nashville, Tennessee, at 17 percent year-over-year growth.

According to Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial, “the Great Recession delayed, but did not destroy, dreams of home ownership.” Now, increased job growth, a return of non-bank lenders to the mortgage market, and the expansion of low down payment options should prompt more buyers to enter the market, according to Swonk. According to the report, housing starts are expected to rise at a double-digit pace to 1.14 million, the first year above the 1 million unit mark since 2007. Single family starts are expected to show new signs of life. Home sales are expected to rise a moderate 3 percent to 5.7 million.

Other metrics that changed little month-over-month in February, according to BLS, include the civilian labor force participation rate (62.8 percent, and it has remained between 62.7 and 62.9 since April 2014), the number of long-term unemployment persons, or those unemployed for more than 27 weeks (2.7 million), involuntary part-time workers, or workers employed part-time for economic reasons (6.6 million), persons marginally attached to the labor force (2.2 million), and discouraged workers, or those who are not currently looking for work because they believe there are no jobs available (732,000).

U.S. home prices rose for the 14th consecutive quarter by 1.4 percent, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency's House Price Index released Thursday. The price increase was seen in the purchase-only, seasonally adjusted index in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Bigger is better when it comes to dream homes, according to a report released Thursday by Trulia called “Dreaming Big: Americans Still Yearning for Larger Homes.” According to the report, dreaming of a bigger homes spans all generations with Baby Boomers, Millennials, and GenXers all surveying they want more space.

A new customer satisfaction survey released by J.D. Power breaks down the top priorities among clients working with real estate brokerages, ranking the customer/agent relationship as most important factor for homebuyers—particularly first-timers, who benefit most from clear communication, says Christina Cooley, director in the diversified services industries practice at J.D. Power.