U.S. Housing Confidence Proving Resilient

An index derived from the January 2016 edition of The U.S. Housing Confidence Survey shows that confidence in the residential real estate market is proving resilient, even as investor confidence, business confidence, and consumer economic sentiment have wavered amidst turbulent financial markets and unsettling election-year politics. The latest Zillow Housing Confidence Index — which summarizes the survey data from 10,000 questionnaires completed by heads of household across the country — was released this morning.

The headline ZHCI edged up 0.4 points to 66.9 since last summer, 3.2 points higher than its level two years ago (a reading over 50 indicates a confidence surplus; below 50, a deficit). Housing confidence has increased in every city over the past two years. Here are a few other noteworthy results:

• Across all 20 metro areas surveyed, a confidence gap between homeowners and renters persists. The Homeowner Confidence Index reached the 70.3 level (up 0.7 points), while the Renter Confidence Index fell slightly to 61.5 (down 0.3 points).

• Los Angeles edged-out San Jose with the highest level of housing confidence (70.7); St. Louis remains stuck with the weakest (but still positive) overall confidence reading (60.3). Housing confidence among L.A. homeowners is particularly strong (76.3) while falling to barely-positive territory (51.9) among St. Louis renters.

• Over the past year, housing confidence in Phoenix and Boston improved the most overall (+2.0, +1.8), while the indices for New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and St. Louis each fell by more than 2 points.

The complete index set is freely available at pulsenomics.com and zillow.com.