Nationwide, the economy is cooking along at 88 percent of normal and housing activity in June, according to a NAHB/First American Leading Markets Index. And with a score of 1.02, homebuilding activity in the Denver metro area is doing better than national figures — at two percent above Denver's May's activity, and another three basis points up from June last year.

"Markets are gradually returning to normal levels of housing economic activity," observed Kevin Kelly, NAHB's chair. "When we see more sustainable levels of job growth, this will unleash pent-up demand and bring more buyers into the marketplace."

One component of the LMI is single family housing permits, which are lagging by 43 percent of the way back to normal, even as home prices are up an average 26 percent from their last normal level, and employment is at 95 percent to the previous norm. Yet, David Crowe, NAHB's chief economist, observed that in the 22 metro areas where permits are at or above normal, "the overall index indicates that these markets have fully recovered."

NAHB scores more than 350 metro areas by taking their average permit, price and employment levels for the past 12 months, and dividing each by their annual average over the last period of normal growth. For single family permits, 2002-'03 is used as the last normal period, while 2007 is used for the base of employment. The three components are then averaged for an overall score for each market. Read more...

 

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