New indicator to watch in housing
Today, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) announced the launch of the NAHB Improving Markets Index (IMI) which will be released monthly and will analyze which housing markets are improving in three key economic indicators. The indicators that make up the IMI will be employment growth numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), single-family housing permit growth data from the U.S. Census Bureau, and home price growth statistics from Freddie Mac.
The first IMI report will be released for the first time next week and before any metro area can be included in the report, it must see improvement in all three key economic indicators for a minimum of six months following their “respective troughs.”
The HAHB has not yet launched the website for the IMI but will begin including the research in their statistics to track the areas that are on their way up, likely in an effort to offer some good news in a sea of bad news.
