Residential properties across the country sold at an estimated annual pace of 5,146,565 in November 2013, as per the housing data firm, RealtyTrac. Properties sold include single family homes, condominiums and town homes. Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac, has said that such a housing market rebound is being driven chiefly by the cash home buyers and investors.

Even lenders have taken the trend in their stride to shed as much as possible their bank-owned inventory and in-foreclosure inventory at the foreclosure auction. Speaking mainly about California, its local housing market has been adjudged to be the healthiest one in the country during October 2013, according to the Zillow Market Health Index.

California was named as the top performing housing market in the country on the basis of a number of factors like number of foreclosures, price appreciation and financial situation of the homeowners in comparison to various other regions.

The index is measured on a scale from 0 to 10 to show the present condition of a particular housing market’s performance relative to similar other ones across the nation. It has 10 different standalone parameters to measure the health of a housing market.

The index is a crucial component of Zillow’s freshly revamped local information pages developed with the sole objective of offering useful housing data to the users more easily. The calculations are done on a monthly basis taking into considerations the ZIP code, county, neighborhood, city, metro and state levels to get a definite result.

In October 2013, five of the healthiest metro housing markets out of the 30 largest ones were San Jose clocking a Market Health Index of nine, San Francisco at 8.9, Los Angeles at 8.6, Denver at 8.1, and San Diego at 8.4.

Confirming the good news, even Stan Humphries, the chief economist associated with Zillow, was quoted as saying that the fast faced appreciation in home values all along the West Coast, particularly California, throws a positive light on various other factors and that includes foreclosure activity, negative equity and the overall financial condition of the local homeowners.

However, he did not forget to a leave warning note that such a trend of rapid home value appreciation may become an affordability hazard in the days to come in these housing markets, He further explained that while an individual data point can be good enough metric to describe a particular aspect of a housing market, the same cannot be used to get the complete picture.

Housing markets in the country is expected to keep evolving and recovering in the forward direction and so will the Zillow’s Market Health Index which would reflect the changing trends in home buying. All these information will undoubtedly provide the consumers with some really valuable tools for them to base their decision on.

Zillow created the Market Health Index after incorporating 10 different types of metrics such as duration of property’s stay on the market, delinquencies regarding mortgage payments, negative home equity and foreclosures. The changes in home values are measured by the Zillow Home Value Index as accounted by the Market Health Index.

Therefore, if a particular area gets a value of eight on the Market Health Index, then that said region will be considered as comparatively healthier than 80 percent of the other similar areas surveyed by Zillow. The Market Health Index rate markets after comparing one another.

Take for instance a super Market health Index score does not necessarily imply that a certain market is performing badly…  it’s just that the other comparable markets are witnessing positive factors like reduced number of foreclosures or higher home value appreciation.

“Stuart Parker is a financial writer associated with the Mortgagefit Community. He actively participates in various financial forums to help consumers make well-informed, judicious decisions as far as their personal financial health is concerned. In this article, he has tried to delve into the recent housing
market trend that has got the home buyers scouring for a detailed and more
reliable data to arrive at a definite decision about their home affordability
as well other related issues.”