Eye On Housing
Eye on the Economy: Housing Starts Pause and Existing Sales Rise
Existing home sales posted a third monthly increase in June, passing a 5 million annualized sales pace for the first time since October of 2013. The recent gains reverse the negative trend that had set in after an increase in mortgage interest rates in the fall followed by an unusually long winter in some parts of the country. However, gains… Read More ›
Recent Posts
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Existing Sales Pass 5 Million
Existing home sales continued to increase from the winter quarter and passed the 5 million mark for the first time since October 2013. This increase is positive news for future new home sales because each prospective repeat buyer must sell their existing home before buying a newly built home. Existing home sales increased 2.6% in June, but are still 2.3%… Read More ›
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Gasoline Pushes Consumer Prices Higher in June
According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) press release, consumer prices increased in June 0.3% on a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis. Over the past twelve months, prices on expenditures made by urban consumers increased 2.1% before seasonal adjustments. The month-over-month increase in the all items index was driven by a large 3.3% increase in the gasoline index. The… Read More ›
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Green Building Certification
Among single-family builders, the NAHB National Green Building Standard (NGBS) is the most commonly used green building certification. McGraw Hill Construction’s data and analytics team surveyed a set of NAHB single-family and multifamily members in 2013. From 2011 to 2013, the percentage of single-family firms using the NGBS has grown from 21% to 30%. In contrast, 13% of single-family builders reported… Read More ›
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Housing Construction Pauses
According to the Census Bureau and HUD, housing starts activity dipped 9.3% in June to an 893,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate. The drop was concentrated in the South region where single-family starts fell 70,000, accounting for more than the total national drop of 57,000. Multifamily starts also fell 88,000 units in the South accounting for more than the 35,000 total… Read More ›
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Inflation at the Producer Level in June – Bloated by Gas
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Producer Price Indexes (PPI) for June. Inflation in prices received by producers (prior to sales to consumers) rose 0.4% in June from May (a 4.4% annual pace) owing largely to an increase in gasoline prices. Core prices (i.e., excluding the volatile categories of food and energy) increased 0.2%. Over the 12 months… Read More ›
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Builder Confidence Surpasses Key Benchmark in July
Builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes rose four points to a reading of 53 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). Any reading over 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor. The July reading marks the first time since January that the index has been above a level of… Read More ›
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The Economic Impact of the Affordable Housing Credit
In addition to ensuring the supply of affordable rental housing, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) supports jobs and provides benefits to the economy. Using the NAHB economic impact model of home building, revised industry estimates reveal that the LIHTC program supports almost 96,000 jobs in a typical year. NAHB recently updated its economic impact model of home building, which indicate that… Read More ›
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5,000+ Square Foot Homes: 3+ Percent of Starts
Previous posts have discussed the upward trend in the median and average size of new single-family homes and how part of this is likely due to a historically atypical mix of buyers in the market. A question not addressed so far in these posts is whether this trend is evident at the top end of the market. The answer is… Read More ›
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FOMC Minutes From the June Meeting – October Surprise?
Last week the Federal Reserve released the minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting held June 17-18. Following its standard procedure the Fed released a statement immediately following the meeting announcing the major policy decisions, and released the minutes from the meeting, providing a more in-depth view of the deliberations, three weeks later. It has become a foregone… Read More ›