Data

According to the latest market forecast from Veros Real Estate Solutions, released Thursday, 83 percent of American homes are appreciating, especially in markets west of the Mississippi. In fact, the top 25 markets are west of the river. In contrast, 24 of the weakest 25 markets are east of it.

Deloitte released Thursday the results of its latest monthly Consumer Spending Index, which climbed in September to 4.21 from an August reading of 4.11. The index tracks consumer cash flow through a handful of measures—tax burden, initial unemployment claims, real wages, and new home prices—as an indicator of future consumer spending.

Persisting tight lending standards may have cost the housing market about 18,700 new home sales in the last six months, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). A large majority—83 percent—of homebuilders surveyed stated they lost sales because potential buyers did not qualify for mortgage loans. The average builder lost nearly 10 percent of sales for this reason, according to the NAHB survey.

In a release on Thursday, MBA estimated new single-family home sales ran last month at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 425,000 units, just up from a rate of 424,000 units in August. On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimates new home sales last month totaled 32,000, a decrease of 5.9 percent from August's prediction of 34,000.

Single-family home sales fell annually in Rhode Island for the fifth month this year in August, dropping by double digits even as selling prices came down, the Warren Group reported. Warren Group CEO Timothy M. Warren Jr. called the decline "discouraging," especially after the market gained some steam in July.

Real estate brokerage Redfin reported a 2.2 percent monthly increase in customers requesting tours with the company's agents last month, about half the improvement recorded this time last year. "Though the September uptick in tour requests was not as strong as last year, this late season pickup suggests that housing activity will hold steady through November before the seasonal slowdown in home searches over the holiday," said Chief Economist Nela Richardson.

Home equity lending made solid strides in the last year but still has a lot of ground to cover to return to pre-crisis levels, housing data firm RealtyTrac said in a new report Thursday. In its first-ever U.S. Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) Trends Report, the company revealed that lenders originated an estimated 797,865 HELOCs in the 12 months ending in June, up 20.6 percent from the prior period and the highest level since the year ending June 2009.

In its 2015 housing market forecast, the California Association of Realtors (CAR) calls for existing-home sales in the state to reach 402,500 next year, an increase of 5.8 percent from 2014's projected sales figure of 380,500. Even with the increase, home sales are still expected to fall short of last year's total of 414,300, demonstrating how much California's market has slowed down in 2014.

Despite seeing a decline in average gross return on investment (ROI) and average gross profit on flipped homes, California still ranked fourth among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in flipped homes as a percentage of total sales in Q2, according to RealtyTrac.

According to results from Fannie Mae's September 2014 National Housing Survey, Americans' optimism about the housing market recovered last month following declines in both July and August, with the share of respondents saying now is a good time to buy a home jumping 4 percentage points to 68 percent. The share of consumers saying they would purchase a home if they were going to move also picked up, increasing 2 percentage points to 66 percent.