The worst days of the inventory crunch may be behind us, according to real estate search and marketing company Trulia.
The housing market is now 61 percent back to its pre-bubble “normal,” due to rebounding construction starts, rising existing-home sales, and lower delinquency and foreclosure rates, the company said.
Existing-home sales have recovered the most and are now 82 percent back to normal, said Jed Kolko, Trulia’s chief economist, in a blog post. He noted that inventory expanded, on a seasonally adjusted basis, for the fourth straight month in May and “may have bottomed in January.”
“The recovery has reached full-fledged teenager status, with awkward, sudden growth spurts and parents — the Fed — who now threaten to take away its allowance by winding down measures that pushed mortgage rates down to historic lows,” Kolko said.
“Before long, the recovery should make it into adulthood, but it will face some grown-up challenges in the next couple of years: still-tight mortgage credit for many borrowers, a slow jobs recovery for young adults, and unaffordable housing in large coastal markets.”
Source: Trulia
