People considering property investments in the US may be encouraged by one analyst's assertion that the country's housing market will start improving later this year. Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors (NAR), stated that "temporary factors" had curtailed the market so far in 2011.
"The pace of sales activity in the second half of the year is expected to be stronger than the first half, and will be much stronger than the second half of last year," he predicted. Mr Yun added that prices are already on the up in certain areas with stable markets and better employment prospects, such as Washington DC, North Dakota, Texas and Alaska.
Figures published by NAR showed that existing home sales were down in May by 3.8 per cent compared to the previous month. The drop has been largely attributed to the severe weather that swept the country in April, as well as spikes in gasoline prices.
Vice-president and chief economist at Freddie Mac Frank Nothaft commented earlier this month that the US housing sector is already in a better position than it was during the first four months of 2010, adding that "the rental market has clearly strengthened", which could be good news for property investors.