Housing Market Recovery Progressed Modestly in 2014

The U.S. housing market has improved modestly since the beginning of the year, according to Freddie Mac's latest Multi-Indicator Market Index.

The national MiMi value through October stands at 74.5, which indicates a weak overall housing market. Overall housing market stability has only risen 0.5% since January, the McLean, Va.-based company said.

However, on a year-over-year basis, the U.S. housing market has improved approximately 4.5%. The all-time MiMi peak was June 2006, at 122.5, while its low was 60.3 in September 2011. Since this weakest time period, the market has rebounded by 23.5%, Freddie Mac said.

Freddie Mac revealed that 13 states have MiMi values in a stable range, as North Dakota (95.9), Washington, D.C. (94.1), Montana (91.2), Wyoming (91) and Hawaii (89.2) make up the top five.

Furthermore, 70 of the markets tracked in this index are now showing positive momentum, as San Jose and Pittsburgh are the latest metropolitan areas to reach their benchmark stable ranges, Freddie Mac said.

"Housing markets continue to heal across the country with those hardest hit showing the biggest improvement," said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for Freddie Mac. "Low mortgage rates have helped, but we also need better household income growth. The employment picture needs to improve more to strengthen wage growth."

MiMi combines proprietary 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. The four indicators are combined to create a composite MiMi value for each market.