Eye On Housing
On April 25, the Department of Commerce levied a 19.88% duty rate against Canadian softwood lumber exports to the United States. Due to “special circumstances,” the duties will be retroactive 90 days from the date that the rates are officially published in the Federal Register, likely back to the beginning of February. Five Canadian lumber producing companies will face specific… Read More ›
A recent NAHB study tracks trends in loans for new construction obligated under the USDA Single-family programs, the Section 502 Direct Loan Program and the Section 502 Guaranteed Loan Program. The report finds that, similar to the Federal Housing Administration’s single-family loan program, the USDA programs supported homeownership at a time when obtaining a conventional loan became increasingly difficult. However,… Read More ›
Existing home sales, as reported by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), surged 4.4% in March to the highest pace in ten years. At the current sales rate, the March unsold inventory represents a 3.8-month supply, unchanged from February. March existing sales were up 5.9% from the same month a year ago, and reached a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.71… Read More ›
Total housing starts declined in March, after a strong pace was recorded in February. Total starts were down almost 7%, falling to a 1.215 million seasonally adjusted annual rate, according to the joint data release from the Census Bureau and HUD. Single-family starts posted a monthly decline of 6% in March, falling to an 821,000 annual rate. The February annualized rate, 875,000, was the fastest monthly pace since… Read More ›
Builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes remained solid in April, falling three points to a level of 68 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) after an unusually high March reading. Builders continue to report significant interest among potential home buyers, with the traffic measure continuing to score above the breakeven level of… Read More ›
Smaller banks, those with assets of less than $10 billion, hold the majority of residential construction loans, according to NAHB analysis of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) data. Unlike mortgages, a larger proportion of residential construction loans at FDIC-insured institutions are held by banks with assets between $100 million and $10 billion. In addition, a greater proportion of mid-sized banks… Read More ›
The total amount of consumer credit outstanding rose in February 2017 reflecting growth in both non-revolving credit, auto loans and student loans, and revolving credit, mostly credit cards. However, the growth rate of non-revolving credit, which is the larger of the two classes, exceeded the percentage increase of revolving credit. According to the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Credit release, the total… Read More ›
The count of unfilled jobs in the construction sector increased slightly in February, after two months of lower levels of open positions. According to the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) and NAHB analysis, the number of open construction sector jobs (on a seasonally adjusted basis) rose to 169,000 in February. The cycle high is 238,000, set in July of last year. The open position… Read More ›
Information provided by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) indicates that the loan amount relative to the purchase price of the home, leverage or the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio, rose in 2016 to 79.2 percent, 140 basis points above the rate in 2015, 77.8 percent*/**. The increase over 2016 largely reflected growth in the LTV ratio on purchases of previously occupied… Read More ›
Results from the Mortgage Interest Rate Survey (MIRS) administered by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) indicate that mortgage rates rose in February 2017*. Over the month, contract rates on mortgages used to purchase single-family newly constructed homes increased by 16 basis points to 4.18 percent. Since reaching a low of 3.54 percent in October 2016, contract rates reported by the… Read More ›