Housing market crosses halfway mark back to normal

The housing market crossed the halfway mark last month on the long road back to normal.

A housing barometer that weighs three key indicators — construction starts, existing home sales and delinquencies and foreclosures — is now 51 percent back toward what is considered a healthy market, according to Trulia, a group that keeps an eye on the sector's progress.

Sales picked up pace, delinquencies and foreclosures continued their slow but steady decline, and while construction levels fell a bit, starts still hovered around the highest level of activity in four years. 

Hurricane Sandy reduced activity in the Northeast with October and November showing smaller gains relative to previous months compared with the rest of the country. 

Construction starts dipped in November but remain strong and are 37 percent of the way back to normal. 

Starts in November were at an annual pace of 861,000, up 22 percent year-over-year. 

For the past three months, construction starts have remained solidly above 800,000–the highest level since September 2008. 

Existing home sales rose once again in November up 6 percent month-over-month to 5.04 million, the highest level since November 2009 and 73 percent of the way back to normal. 

Even better, “distressed” sales (foreclosures and short sales) represent a declining share of overall sales, making way for more “conventional” home sales.