Housing Market Ready to Spring Forward

As we transition into Spring, 3 factors indicate an upward trend in growth and sales in the Housing market:

Employment is up

 CNN says in the U.S., “The increase in jobs and decrease in the unemployment rate were better than expected.” and that has fueled home price gains in those hard-hit markets and other metro areas, as well.

Case-Shiller Index

 The S&P Case-Shiller index, which tracks the 20 largest residential real estate markets in the nation, showed the biggest year-over-year gain in prices since June 2006. Nineteen of the 20 cities in the index showed a year-over- year gain, led by a 22.8 percent jump in Phoenix and a 12.7 percent increase in San Francisco. Portland, OR is currently at 141.25, up from 132.66 one year ago which represents a 6.5% increase.. “Housing is clearly recovering,” David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P index committee, said in a statement. “These figures confirm that housing is contributing to economic growth.”

Home improvement stocks are up

Revenues at home improvement retailers such as Home Depot and Lowes are up. In less than three months into 2013 Home Depot has seen an 11% increase in its stock, while Lowes is not far behind with an 8% gain. Consumers are once again putting money into improving their most valuable asset — their homes. Not only are people putting more money towards their homes, but new homes as well.