22 Business View - February 2015
confidence should help drive the release of pent-up
demand in 2015.”
Baton Rouge, La., continues to top the list of major
metros on the LMI, with a score of 1.41 – or 41 per-
cent better than its last normal market level. Other ma-
jor metros leading the list include Austin, Texas; Hono-
lulu; Houston; and Oklahoma City. Rounding out the
top 10 are San Jose, Calif.; Los Angeles; Salt Lake City;
Charleston; S.C.; and Nashville, Tenn.
“The encouraging news is employment, where the
number of metros that reached or surpassed their
norms rose by 23 in a year,” Crowe said. “However,
single-family permits are only at 44 percent of normal
activity, and remain the sluggish component of the in-
dex.”
“More than 80 percent of all metros saw their leading
markets Index increase or hold steady over the quar-
ter, a strong indicator that the overall housing market
is making headway,” said Kurt Pfotenhauer, vice chair-
man of First American Title Insurance Company, which
co-sponsors the LMI report.
Looking at smaller metros, both Midland and Odessa,
Texas, have LMI scores of 2.0 or better, meaning their
markets are now at double their strength prior to the
recession. Also leading the list of smaller metros are
Grand Forks, N.D; Bismarck, N.D.; and Casper, Wyo.,
respectively.
The LMI shifts the focus from identifying markets that
have recently begun to recover, which was the aim of
a previous gauge known as the Improving Markets In-
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