Recent report says California is in its best shape in eight years, ranking No. 8 in the healthiest housing markets in the United States.
As reported by The Orange County Register, Freddie Mac gauged the nation's housing health through its Multi-Indicator Market Index or "Mimi" which looked into job, homebuying and mortgage data. Using the data, it created a market quality scale of 80 to 120 to reflect "in range" trends, scores of below 80 means the market is "weak" while those beyond 120 are "elevated."
California scored an "in range" 92.8 in the first month of 2016, coming from 91.6 a month before, the report showed. It is the highest score the state achieved since 2008. Being ranked as the best-performing state in the country means California has strong employment, mortgage payment and housing affordability trends, according to the report. One of biggest contributor to California's strong results is Southern California.
Meanwhile, Freddie Mac's Mimi report identified Nevada, New Mexico, Connecticut, North Carolina and Illinois as the weakest markets.
In an earlier report from the Huffington Post, it said that the region saw home prices decline and inventories increase in the region on the back of falling Canadian dollar. Canadians, who flocked California's real estate market after the 2007 housing market crash in the U.S., are no longer buying homes in the sunny region due to lower loonie, driving inventory up by 25 percent from a year earlier.
Kelly Trembley, a realtor with Bennion Deville Homes, said, "This was the perfect storm for the desert, and that's why our real estate right now is in a bit of a slump.''
Experts say that when the Canadian dollar increases again, it's likely that homebuyers are going to make another purchases. In California's Coachella Valley, 15 percent of homebuyers remains to be Canadians.
