In one signal, the national housing market showed a continued trend of moderate YoY improvement. See this article noting a 3.2% increase in the Case-Schiller National Home Price Index; a similar increase to the prior month numbers. But note the gathering clouds? Black Knight reported, “a more significant increase in early-stage delinquencies among GNMA loans, which saw 3.3% of loans delinquent six months after origination.” Remember, most of these new loans are likely at rates that many of us would, on a historical scale, think to be very low – and they come at a time of very low unemployment.
Locally, MLS data showed a slight uptick in YoY Sold numbers (from 385 to 389), but also reflected the cumulative effect of several months of good sales, mostly in the number of listings (down 17.9%, from 1377 to 1130) and correspondingly in YoY Months-of-Inventory (down from 3.6 to 2.9).
Our Mover’s Moving did not send a mixed signal in October, coming in at a very strong 157 transactions for the month. See attached.