Among first-time home buyers, a laundry room ranked as the most popular of the more than 200 home and community features listed in the recent NAHB study, What Home Buyers Really Want, 2021 Edition. The study is based on a nationwide survey of 3,247 recent and prospective home buyers, including 541 who bought, or were…
NAHB analysis of the Census Bureau’s quarterly tax data shows that $672.5 billion in taxes were paid by property owners in the four quarters ending Q4 2021 (not seasonally adjusted), a 1.0% quarterly increase.[1] Four-quarter property tax revenues declined 0.6% in Q3 2021, the second such decrease since 2012. Property taxes accounted for 36.2% of state and…
As rising mortgage rates and home prices continued to price out homebuyers and reduce affordability, existing home sales dropped to a six-month low in February, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Furthermore, home price appreciation is expected to slow in the coming quarters as demand cools and supply improves. Total existing home sales,…
Single-family starts posted a small increase in February, as lack of resale inventory continues to support housing demand despite higher interest rates. The availability of materials, lumber, labor and lots remain key headwinds, with access to labor in particular likely to become more challenging in 2022. Overall housing starts increased 6.8% in February to a…
The first of many expected Federal Reserve hikes of the short-term federal funds rate was announced today. Combined with future balance sheet runoff, these monetary policy moves will lead to higher mortgage rates in 2022 and 2023 as the Fed attempts to curb elevated inflation. As widely expected by forecasters and markets, the Fed raised…
The prices of goods used in residential construction ex-energy climbed 1.6% in February (not seasonally adjusted), according to the latest Producer Price Index (PPI) report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Building materials prices increased 20.4%, year-over-year, and have risen 31.3% since January 2020. Over the past five months, the index has climbed 10.6%. The price index…
Ongoing lumber and building material supply-side constraints and rising construction costs and expectations of higher interest rates continue to negatively affect builder sentiment even as buyer demand remains relatively solid. Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes moved two points lower to 79 in March from a downwardly revised reading in February,…
