The Atlanta Fed conducts a monthly poll of Southeast broker and builder business contacts in an effort to detect emerging real estate trends prior to the release of official government and other statistics. According to the April 2014 Southeast Housing Market Poll results:
- There was a rebound in the number of brokers and builders reporting that home sales had increased from the year-earlier level.
- More brokers but fewer builders noted that buyer traffic had increased from a year earlier.
- Most brokers continued to indicate that inventory levels were down from the year-earlier level. The report from builders was split down the middle—half of respondents said that new home inventories increased from the year-earlier level, the other half noted new home inventory levels had fallen.
- The vast majority of brokers and builders continued to report that home prices increased from a year earlier.
- There was a rebound in the number of builders reporting that construction activity had increased from the year-earlier level.
To explore the latest poll results in more detail, please visit our Construction and Real Estate Survey results.
Note: April poll results are based on responses from 35 residential brokers and 26 homebuilders and were collected May 5–14, 2014. The housing poll's diffusion indexes are calculated as the percentage of total respondents reporting increases minus the percentage reporting declines. Positive values in the index indicate increased activity; negative values indicate decreased activity.
If you would like to participate in this poll, you may sign up here.
By Jessica Dill, senior economic research analyst in the Atlanta Fed's research department