Content about Real estate economics

The list of housing markets continued to show improvement, according to a measurement by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), which expanded its “Improving Markets Index” to nearly 100 metro regions in February 2012. A total of 29 markets were added, bringing the total to 98 entries on the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI). Thirty-six states are now represented by at least one market on the list. 

Housing prices will remain depressed for the next several years and may get even worse, according to a just-released survey of economists, analysts, investors and housing experts. The survey was conducted by MacroMarkets, a firm founded by Yale University professor Robert Shiller.

Arlington, Va. — At last year’s Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI) Spring Conference, the assembled researchers, guests and partners — all thirsty for good news — were told by Morgan Stanley analyst Ian Sugarman that the modest, pre-bubble year of 1999 is the “new normal.”


Fast-forward to this year’s event, held here at the Doubletree Crystal City, and a very similar group of attendees were told to brace for even more simulated time travel — this time to 1996.