Housing Prices, Building Permits Show Marked Recovery (U.S. News and World Report)

U.S. News
(11/26/2013 2:14 PM, Tom Risen)

Building permits highest since 2008, national housing prices reach pre-crash levels

The housing market continued its steady recovery in recent months to levels not seen since the financial crash in 2008, according to three reports published on Tuesday from the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Indices and two government agencies.

Building permits increased 6.2 percent in October to an annual rate of approximately 103 million, which is the most applications for housing construction filed since June 2008, according to a report on Tuesday from the Department of Commerce. Building permits increased 13.9 percent in October compared with that same month in 2012. The annual adjusted rate of building permits was 974,000 in September 2013. The government shutdown delayed the department’s data collection schedule so the report for the starts and completions of housing is being delayed until Dec. 18.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency also published a positive home price index on Tuesday for the third quarter of 2013, using data based on mortgages bought, sold or guaranteed by government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Prices rose 2 percent from the second quarter of 2013, marking the ninth consecutive quarterly increase in the index, the first time since 2009 that the national house price level is higher than prior to the housing market crash in 2008. The federal housing price index rose in 48 states and the District of Columbia during the third quarter. The top five states with the most improved housing prices were Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida and Washington.