Takeaways:
- Freddie Mac gave more than half the states a clean bill of health this week.
- Twenty-eight of the 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., have Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) values in a stable range, Freddie Mac said.
- Cities showing the most improvement are Stockton, California, and several Florida cities: Cape Coral, Sarasota, Lakeland and Tampa.
Taking its Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) stethoscope to the U.S. housing market, government-sponsored enterprise Freddie Mac gave more than half of the states a clean bill of health this week.
MiMi monitors and measures the stability of the housing market on a national, state and metropolitan-area basis, combining Freddie Mac data with current local market data to assess where each single-family housing market is relative to its own long-term stable range by looking at home purchase applications, payment-to-income ratios, proportion of on-time mortgage payments in each market and the local employment picture.
Twenty-eight of the 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., have MiMi values in a stable range, Freddie Mac said.
Ranking in the top five are Washington, D.C., North Dakota, Montana, Hawaii, and California and Utah, the latter of which are tied.
Making Freddie Mac’s list of the most improved states are New Jersey, Florida, Washington, D.C., Connecticut, Nevada and Rhode Island.
In addition, 42 of the top 100 metropolitan areas have MiMi values in a stable range, Freddie Mac said. Ranking on that top-five list are: Fresno, California; Austin, Texas; Honolulu; Salt Lake City; and Los Angeles.
Cities showing the most improvement are Stockton, California, and several Florida cities: Cape Coral, Sarasota, Lakeland and Tampa.
“Housing markets are the strongest they’ve been in years with the national MiMi above 80 for the first time since 2008,” said Freddie Mac Deputy Chief Economist Len Kiefer.
“Nationally, all MiMi indicators are heading in the right direction. Robust homebuyer demand has put total home sales on pace for the best year since 2007. Look for that trend to continue as the MiMi purchase applications indicator remains on the upswing. The West has been especially strong, with many markets posting double-digit growth in their MiMi purchase applications indicator compared to a year ago.”
Kiefer attributed the stability to low home prices, current low interest rates and declining mortgage delinquencies, all thanks to solid job growth, with 96 out of 100 metros and all states within range of their benchmark historic average unemployment rate.”
