Chattanooga, 2 metros in area on list of improving housing markets

Monday, July 8, 2013

Chattanooga and Cleveland, Tenn., along with Dalton, Ga., have made a national list of 255 metro U.S. markets where housing is improving.

The list, which does not rank the metro areas, is more than triple the number in July 2012, according to the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI) for July.

The IMI identifies metropolitan areas that have shown improvement from their respective troughs in housing permits, employment and house prices for at least six consecutive months.

"This is the sixth straight month in which at least 70 percent of all U.S. metros have qualified for the Improving Markets Index," said NAHB Chairman Rick Judson in a statement. "The relative stability of the IMI is representative of the broad recovery underway, which is much more extensive than what we were looking at one year ago."