National Housing Market Conditions, 4th Quarter 2015

April 12, 2016  

National Housing Market Conditions, 4th Quarter 2015

HUD's Office of Policy Development & Research has released its analysis of the national housing market with annual and fourth quarter statistics for 2015. The report contains updates on production, sales, multifamily housing performance, homeownership, and affordability; provides comparisons with previous quarters; and places the data in a larger historical context. Overall, the analysis indicates that the housing market continued to improve throughout 2015.

Key Findings

• Construction starts on single-family homes were up 1 percent from the third quarter and 8 percent from one year before. Having risen in six of the last seven quarters, single-family starts are now at their highest level since the fourth quarter of 2007. Multifamily housing starts dropped 10 percent from the third quarter but were up 7 percent from a year ago. Total housing starts for all of 2015 were up 11 percent from 2014 and were the highest since 2007.

• Purchases of new single-family homes were up 4 percent from the third quarter and up 8 percent from one year earlier. Sales of existing homes were down 4 percent from the third quarter but up 2 percent from one year earlier. Sales of existing homes for all of 2015 were 6 percent higher than in 2014 and 28 percent above their recession low in 2008.

• According to CoreLogic, the number of underwater borrowers declined 5 percent between the second and third quarters and 66 percent since the beginning of 2012 to 4.1 million homes, or 8.1 percent of residential properties with a mortgage. CoreLogic attributed the decline in underwater borrowers primarily to house price appreciation. Foreclosure starts fell 2 percent from the third quarter and are down 23 percent from a year ago. For all of 2015, foreclosure starts fell 11 percent to their lowest annual total since RealtyTrac® started recording a total in 2006.

• The overall rental vacancy rate declined to 7.0 percent in the fourth quarter, from 7.3 percent in the third. For all of 2015, the single family vacancy rate was 7.1 percent, down from 7.4 percent in 2014. The multifamily vacancy rate was 7.4 percent in 2015, down from 8.3 percent in 2014.

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