Housing market stable and warm

South Florida ranks as the nation’s 25th most stable housing market, according to a report Wednesday from mortgage company Freddie Mac.

Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties scored 91.7 on Freddie’s Multi-Indicator Market Index for May. That’s up 13 percent from a year earlier.

Freddie Mac determines a composite score for the nation’s 100 largest metro areas after analyzing home loan applications, affordability, mortgage delinquencies and employment. A score of at least 80 is considered stable. A perfect score is 100.

The tri-county region has the highest score of the eight Florida metros included in the report. South Florida’s 91.7 is more than double its all-time low of 45.3 in October 2010.

The U.S. index score in May was 85, up 7 percent from a year ago. Honolulu and Salt Lake City shared the top spot among metros.

Len Kiefer, deputy chief economist for Freddie Mac, said in a statement that “the majority of Southern states showed stronger employment growth than the national average, and all of the eight markets in Florida that MiMi tracks are now back to their historic benchmark levels of housing activity.”

In South Florida, prices are on the rise, mostly due to a lack of homes for sale, real estate agents say.

Median resale prices for single-family homes in all three counties topped $300,000 in June, according to figures last week from local Realtor boards. Median prices for resale condominiums also were higher in June than they were a year ago.

Judy Trudel, an agent in Broward and Palm Beach counties, said some home sellers “continue to push the envelope” by asking too much. But buyers are resisting, and that’s keeping the market from getting out of hand, she said.