The Wall Street Journal recently released its quarterly survey on where housing is headed. The report is well sourced and provides some interesting information detailing five major categories for 28 metropolitan areas. Being the Wall Street Journal, its very New York-centric, which shouldn’t be too surprising based on its readership and the simple fact that these are indeed major metro areas that needed to be broken out to accurately represent the information correctly.
Some survey highlights:
California Seeing Some Sunshine, Florida is Not
San Diego is ranked number one in changes in inventory and price change while also rising to fourth overall in regards to the lowest monthly supply of homes. Los Angles, Orange County and San Francisco also held primary positions with these selected metro areas in regards to positive change in inventory, price change and a lessening monthly supply of homes. Orlando took last place in change in inventory, 25th in price change and 26th in loan payments overdue. Tampa ranked third and fourth from the bottom in jobless rates and loan payments overdue.
Detroit, Las Vegas– Not Good
Detroit’s metro area scored a solid 27th in both change in inventory and price change. It took the last spot for jobless rate in the survey. This depressed metro areas needs a break and a reinvention of itself beyond the automotive industry. Las Vegas came in last place for price change and 27th for both jobless rate and loan payments overdue.
Tops in Employment
The top five metro areas for employment in this survey – Washington DC, Minneapolis, Dallas, Denver and Boston all hold jobless rates below the national average. We are not sure if this is a cause for a celebration as the numbers range from 6.8% to 8.7%, but the figures are indicative of areas with stronger employment landscapes.
Loan Payments
Minneapolis, Denver and Portland took the top three spots with the lowest overdue mortgages while Miami and the aforementioned Las Vegas and Orlando scored in the bottom three in this category.
Relocation
From a relocation perspective, this information provides some good insight. While the positive areas do tend to offer a better employment possibilities, the areas with a large supply of homes in inventory and stagnant pricing provide a unique opportunity for relocating homebuyers, especially in regards to short sale purchases, as detailed in our last blog. This information needs to be looked at carefully and in combination with other sites such as RelocateAmerica.com.
Take a moment to review the survey results. The site offers a sorting feature for the five categories and is worth a visit.