The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/First American Leading Markets Index (LMI), which recently replace NAHB’s improving market index (IMI), indicates markets in 54 of the 350 major metro markets returned to or exceeded their last normal levels of economic activity. Based on current permits, prices and employment data, LMI data for November indicates the nationwide market is operating at 86 percent of normal economic and housing activity. “This index shows that most housing markets across the nation are continuing a slow, gradual climb back to normal levels,” said NAHB Chairman Rick Judson, a home builder from Charlotte, N.C. “Policymakers must guard against actions that could impede or even reverse the modest gains of the past year.” MHProNews has learned nearly half of the LMI’s in the top 54 are located in the energy producing states of Texas, North Dakota, Louisiana, Wyoming and Montana.
