Gauging the Market: 2008 to Today

How much have housing sales recovered compared to 2008's levels? According to the most ""recent measures"":http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/monitoring-the-economy/Documents/monthly%20ECONOMIC%20DATA%20TABLES.pdf released by the ""U.S. Treasury"":http://www.treasury.gov/Pages/default.aspx, 2012's sales fall somewhere in the middle between 2008's highs and 2011's lows.

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The latest monthly data on U.S. economic statistics shows new home sales reached an annualized average of 368,000 in October. While that statistic comes in above 2010's annualized monthly average of 321,000--and well above 2011's average of 307,000--it still falls short of previous years.

According to Treasury's data, new home sales reached an annualized monthly average of 374,000 in 2009 and 482,000 in 2008. Averages have stayed firmly in the 360,000-370,000 range for the latter half of 2012.

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Meanwhile, housing starts have shown marked--albeit unstable--growth in the past few months alone. Starts were on track to total 894,000 for the year in October, towering over the 754,000 annualized monthly average recorded for June and approaching 2008's monthly average of 900,000.

Though starts took a dip from June to July (falling to an average 728,000), they have risen at an accelerated clip ever since.

With mortgage rates nesting near all-time record lows--Treasury reported an average rate of 3.35 percent for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage--demand is likely to remain elevated for some time, meaning sales and starts have the potential to stay healthy or improve further in the year ahead.

However, that demand needs to actually translate into activity, says Barry Rutenberg, chairman of the ""National Association of Home Builders"":http://www.nahb.org/.

""Builders across the country are reporting some of the best sales conditions they've seen in more than five years, with more serious buyers coming forward and a shrinking number of vacant and foreclosed properties on the market,"" Rutenberg said in the group's most recent ""Housing Market Index"":https://themreport.com/articles/builder-confidence-up-again-in-december-2012-12-18 update. ""However, one thing that is still holding back potential home sales is the difficulty that many families are encountering in getting qualified for a mortgage due to today's overly stringent lending standards.""