Confidence in the real estate market jumped a bit in August, according to Point2 Technologies Inc.’s monthly Real Estate Confidence Index that found an overall confidence reading of 5.9 in the real estate market. The RECI draws on the opinions of 3,151 real estate professionals across the United States, including brokers and agents, asking them to rate their current local real estate market on a scale of 1 to 10 (with one being “bad” and ten being “good”).
August’s reading is up 5.4 percent from July’s rate of 5.6 and 21 percent higher than June’s average. This is the third consecutive month that the index has trended higher.
Attitudes about the market in the next 3-6 months were about the same as current sentiment, at 5.8. This is a 4.5 percent improvement over July. Opinions about the market in the long-term looked much more upbeat, with a 6.88 reading level of optimism for market 6-12 months from now—up 3.6 points on July.
While it has been covering the national readings, Point2 has plans to begin releasing regional indices beginning with next month’s report.
In comments on a media release, Saul Klein, CEO of Point2 Technologies, emphasized that these numbers do not necessarily predict how things will turn out. “How do sentiment and reality track? That can only be determined in retrospect.”
|