After the housing bust began in 2008, the market felt as if it would never recover. Homeowners couldn’t sell, buyers weren’t buying, and lenders weren’t lending. This caused negative effects that rippled through other industries as well. As time has went on things have slowly churned along to turn around, but it has not been easy. Although the market is not anywhere near where it was in 2008, it is certainly showing promise in 2013 and beyond. According to recent data from CoreLogic Reports, pending foreclosures are down about 27%, and inventories for the same are down around 24%. This is a significant improvement considering the number of bankruptcies that were filed and the astronomical number of foreclosures that were occurring immediately following the bust in 2008. While we may not be in for a housing market boom in the near future, we are certainly showing positive signs of growth and improvement.
Improvements in Even the Most Troubled States
The housing market is operating at around 85% of normality. Although some states are still struggling such as Michigan, Texas, Georgia, Florida, and California with foreclosures, much of the United States has been in a rebound mode over the last couple of years. Even troubled states are showing improvements, it just varies sporadically in terms of the locations that are affected. Shadow inventories are the lowest that they have been in years, and investors now have something to smile about. Although many of them snapped up great deals during the great recession, they are anxiously anticipating a market rise, so that they can finally see descent returns on the investments that they have bought and held over the last few years.
New Home Construction Making a Comeback
Immediately post 2008, the home building construction industry was nearly at a standstill. There were so many existing homes on the market that weren’t selling that people opted to go the cheaper route to get deals on existing homes, rather than forking over more cash for a new build in uncertain hard economic times. The whole market became stagnant as a result, but it has gotten better in the last several quarters. According to major housing market indicators and real estate investor news reports, new construction homes have started to pick up speed as consumers are beginning to feel more confident about the economy again.
