Foot traffic is a strong indicator of the demand for housing and is a leading indicator of home sales. Every month, NAR publishes data on foot traffic as measured by the number of times SentriLock lock boxes are opened. The data for May was the 6th consecutive month of expansion in the national foot traffic index. Local trends bode well also with the vast majority in our sub-market panel showing expansion.
Despite a steady upward movement in mortgage rates in late April and May, demand for housing remains strong. The diffusion index for foot traffic eased 1.8 to 59.0, 13.8 points higher than the same time in 2014. A measure above the “50” mark indicates that more than half of the roughly 200 markets in this panel had stronger foot traffic in May of 2015 than the same month a year earlier. But this index does not tell us how much stronger traffic is.
