Good News on the Horizon for the Housing Market

photo credit: roberthuffstutter

It looks like there is good news on the horizon for the housing market. There are signs that the housing market is on its way back from the dead. I dont want to speak too soon, but we have some initial numbers pointing towards an up swing in home sales. This is good news of course, but I just had a look at the national unemployment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and there is no pulse. I checked all the vital signs and nothing. I think its dead too.

The unemployment rate for the country is 9.6 percent. If Im not mistaken, the unemployment rate was just about 5.4 percent in 2008 when Mr. Bush left office. Government employment fell with a decrease of 114,000 jobs. Thank god for that stimulus money or things might be worse! Worse?

There is a ray of sunshine though, a glimmer of life, privet sector employment trended up modestly, reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Maybe thats where the new housing numbers are coming from; imagine that, the increases are coming from the privet sector. However, there is conflicting numbers. The ADP National Employment Report and Market Watch, from the Wall Street Journal, stated that private sector employment decreased by 10,000 jobs from July to August.

July saw some promising numbers however, the Pending Home Sales Index rose 5.2 percent to 79.4 up from 75.5 in June. The numbers still remain 19.1 percent lower than from July 2009. Keep in mind that these numbers reflect contracts not closed deals. The National Association of Realtors state that these numbers normally occur with a lag time of one or two months, so the numbers are a little delayed.

Now we need to connect these dots. We all want the housing numbers to rise, but more importantly, or maybe not more importantly, but maybe first, we want the employment numbers to rise. We are seeing a small increase in jobs in the privet sector, Im not sure its enough to jump up and down about, but its an increase, and today any upwards numbers is something to get excited abut. Lets continue doing what we can and monitoring the situation.

Read the full story from Realtor.org

Posted on September 03, 2010 11:48:38 by Blog Author