Freddie Mac's Multi-Indicator Market Index is pursuing its slow climb, but still shows housing recovering unevenly across the nation.
The index, which measures home-purchase applications, payment-to-income ratios and the proportion of current mortgage payments per market, as well as employment statistics, reached 81.3 in September, up 67 basis points from the previous month.
Since September 2014, the index grew 5.79%, and compared to the all-time low reached in October 2010, it jumped up 37%.
But the recovery remains unequal across regions, with 20 states remaining in an unstable Multi-Indicator Market Index range. The most stable states were North Dakota, Montana, Hawaii and Alaska; they were all topped by the District of Columbia.
The states that showed the fastest month-over-month improvement were Florida, Colorado and South Carolina. The states with the best year-over-year progress were Florida, Oregon and Colorado.
"When we observe MiMi's annual improvement, it's clear housing markets continue to recover with some markets firing on all cylinders, others inching along and the vast majority still working to get back to their long-term benchmark normal range," said Len Kiefer, Freddie Mac's deputy chief economist, in a press release.
Kiefer added that Western markets were still growing at a rapid pace on improving employment numbers, while other areas are recovering at a more modest clip.
"In many Southern metro areas home sales are improving, which is good news, but their levels still remain depressed," he said.
