Eye On Housing
Information provided by the Federal Housing Financing Agency (FHFA) indicates that mortgage rates on purchases of newly built homes rose 7 basis points in November to 4.00 percent. At this level, rates remain below the 4.18 cycle peak level recorded in February. Meanwhile, a more commonly used rate reported by Freddie Mac indicates that mortgage rates rose by 2 basis… Read More ›
Builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes dropped two points to a level of 72 in January on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) after reaching an 18-year high in December 2017. Builders confidence remained strong given changes to the tax code will promote the small business sector and boost broader economic growth. Nonetheless, home… Read More ›
Consumer prices, measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Consumer Price Index – Urban Consumer (CPI), rose by 2.1 percent on an unadjusted basis over the 12 months of 2017, and has broadly accelerated from the 1.63 percent reading in June 2017. Energy prices contributed to the increase in the headline measure of consumer inflation, climbing 6.9 percent over… Read More ›
The monthly NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index includes a set of “special” questions on a topic of current interest to the housing industry. In December 2017, the special questions asked builders about the problems they faced in 2017 and expect to face in 2018. Topping the list of problems builders faced in 2017 and expect to face in 2018 is… Read More ›
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nonfarm payroll employment increased in 32 states and decreased in 17 states and the District of Columbia in November 2017 compared to October 2017 while the level of employment in Maine remained unchanged. Year-over-year, 47 states increased employment while four states lost payroll employment during this time. As a result payroll employment nationwide… Read More ›
The number of business owners in the construction industry (firms involved in the construction of buildings, heavy/civil engineering construction, or specialty trade contractors) declined 8% from 2.3 million in 2007 to 2.1 million in 2012, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners (collected in years ending in ‘2’ and ‘7’). An earlier post reported that the number… Read More ›
Contracts for new, single-family home sales expanded by 17.5% in November to a 733,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate, according to estimates from the joint release of HUD and the Census Bureau. The particularly strong growth rate was due to a large downward revision for the October estimate (624,000, originally 685,000). However, the November sales rate was the fastest pace since July 2007. The expansion is… Read More ›
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that the economy, as measured by growth in real gross domestic product (GDP), rose by 3.2 percent in the third quarter of 2017. The third estimate of third quarter 2017 GDP growth is slightly less than the 3.3 percent growth rate recorded in the second estimate, but faster than the “advance”, or initial,… Read More ›
According to the Census Bureau’s Building Permits Survey (BPS), over the first ten months of 2017 the total number of permits, which included single-family and multi-family, issued nationwide on a not seasonally adjusted basis reached 1,070,750. This is 6.8% ahead of its level over the first ten months of 2016, 1,002,139. These data are taken from the Builder Permits Survey… Read More ›
Total housing starts increased in November, with strong readings from the single-family sector. Total starts increased 3.3% to a 1.3 million seasonally adjusted annual rate, according to the joint data release from the Census Bureau and HUD. The headline number was supported by strong numbers from single-family home building. Single-family starts increased for the month, rising 5.3% to a 930,000 seasonally adjusted… Read More ›