The U.S. housing market continues to slowly stabilize, according to Freddie Mac's latest Multi-Indicator Market Index.
In July, all four national index indicators — which are calculated based on home purchase applications, payment-to-income ratios, timely mortgage payments and the job market — were on the rise.
July's index is 81, indicating a housing market that is on its outer range of stable housing activity. This is an improvement of 0.93%
Several markets are slowly balancing out, including Rhode Island, as well as the Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pa., Phoenix and Albany metro areas. Those regions have all entered MiMi's outer range of stable housing activity. Twenty-nine of 50 states plus the District of Columbia, and 46 of 100 metro areas are now considered stable.
"Nationally, all MiMi indicators are heading in the right direction for the second consecutive month and improving more than 6% from the same time last year," Len Kiefer, Freddie Mac's deputy chief economist, noted in a press release, adding that many areas in the West had seen double-digit growth on the index for home mortgage applications, while the Northeast had been slower to recover.
