RISMEDIA, October 21, 2010—Real estate broker and agent outlook for the United States market declined by 8.42% in September 2010, versus August, on a seasonally adjusted basis. Continued weakness in confidence sent the U.S. Real Estate Confidence Index (RECI) to its lowest level since Point2 (www.Point2.com) began to track real estate professionals’ future expectations for the real estate market, in June 2009.
The Index, which measures broker and agent confidence in the future of the real estate market, versus reporting on past performance, at a national level, dropped to 4.42 on the RECI scale of 1-10 (1 being “bad” and 10 being “good”).
The RECI’s only three month drop to date was recorded between December 2009 and February 2010.
Compared to September 2009, sentiment plunged by 23.50%, following another 17.18% year-over-year decline in August.
Current Market Conditions, a key RECI indicator that captures survey respondent sentiment regarding the present market, dropped to 3.94 on the 1-10 scale. A 9.43% month-over-month drop also reflects a 22.13% decline versus the same period last year.
For the short term (3-6 months), outlook also hit a new low, settling at 4.20 on the 1-10 Optimism/Pessimism scale, or a drop of 9.87% versus last month and 26.32% compared to September 2009.
The Long Term Optimism/Pessimism (12-18 months) barometer, the RECI’s third key variable, also dropped for the third consecutive month and recorded a new low. The component however remained above the 5.0 median on the 1-10 scale, with a reading of 5.24.
The average of all three variables makes up the RECI score for the month.
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