As spring fades away and summer vacations go on the record books, house hunters are scanning the economy and coming up with some great conclusions. One of the best: It's a good time to buy a home.
Propped up by steady job growth rates, wages slowly rising, and favorable mortgage interest rates, housing demand is rising. The latest report on existing home sales underscores this.,
Quarterly results from luxury home builder Toll Brothers should ease any concern about that area. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal estimate sales of newly built homes rose 2.3 percent in April from a month earlier.
The National Association of Home Builders reports that their gauge of builder sentiment shows home builders are optimistic about current conditions.
One factor that has held housing back, affordability, is now giving house hunters a second chance for a more positive outlook.,
While rising home values have made it difficult for buyers, especially first-time home buyers, to get a mortgage, the National Association of Realtors says new affordability gains have tipped the scales in the favor of home hunters.,
When affordability was compared with median household income by NAR, the study showed that by that measure housing is more affordable than it was last summer.
The house party is moving on.
