The Wall Street Journal takes a look at some of the most recent housing reports, highlighting some promising national trends, and noting that we could be seeing signs of the housing market’s long-awaited sustainable recovery.
The spring home-selling season is off to a promising start, sparking optimism that the market has finally gained momentum after a slow recovery and last year’s stall.
Nationally, finalized sales of previously owned homes were up 4.7% in February compared with a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. But in cities with robust job growth, like Jacksonville, sales gains ran in the double-digits in March, including a 17.7% increase in Seattle and 20.3% in Charlotte, N.C.
Sales could accelerate in the months ahead, according to an index produced by the Realtors association that tracks signed home-sale contracts. Nationally, the pending-home-sales index in February jumped 12% from a year earlier.
Meanwhile, sales of newly built homes in February registered their strongest pace in seven years.
Although sales still remain well short of the peak of nearly 1.3 million new homes sold in 2005, the uptick of recent months is an early indication that “the market is continuing to improve at a very steady pace,” Lennar Corp. Chief Executive Stuart Miller said on a conference call with investors.
