OCR Text |
Show Residential real estate looks bright, research indicates Increased availability of home mortgage funds and ' growing indications that the economy is improving are painting the brightest picture in many months for residential real estate, according to the "National Association of Realtors" Department of Economics and Research. The department's 1975 Spring Real Estate Market Report, conducted in mid-April, revealed that an upturn in housing is already under way, and the market is expected to show furhter improvement during the summer months. Survey participants specialists in residential property -- reported that demand for single-family homes during market, many survey respondents respon-dents were fearful that the housing recovery will be hampered ham-pered late this year when the federal government enters capital markets to fund massive budgetary deficits. "The critical periods will probably come during the first quarter of 1976, when the glowing credit demands of an expanding economy are added to the funding needs of the Treasury," said H. Jackson Pontius, executive vice president of the National Association. "But if the pace of recovery is moderate and kept under rein, housing has a good chance of getting through this period with only minor bruises," he added. -. me nrst quarter oi tms year experienced a more-than-seasonal upturn. However, buyer interest has not yet approached levels of previous years. Sales of existing single-family homes began to show improvement im-provement in February, when the seasonally adjusted sales volume index jumped ten points. Further gains were shown in March, when the sales volume index increased three points, and in April, with a six-point increase. in-crease. New home sales did not fare as well. During the first quarter of this year, sales reported by the Bureau of the Census were measurably below the volume for the same period last year, and substantially less tha levels which prevailed in 1972 and 1973. However, new home sales in March rose 10 percent over February levels in response to a favorable martgage market and a five percent federal tax credit. Despite the generally optimistic op-timistic outlook for the housing i |