Today’s jobs report and the newly released preliminary estimate of the benchmark revision indicate that the U.S. labor market is slowing from its overheated state in 2021 and 2022 but remains stable. Among all sectors, construction led the August job gains, adding 34,000 jobs to payrolls. Additionally, wage growth accelerated in August. Wages grew at…
Mortgage rates continued to decrease in August, landing at an average rate of 6.50%. According to Freddie Mac, the average monthly rate fell by 35 basis points (bps) from July’s rate of 6.85%. The August rate is down 57 bps from one year ago, which stood at 7.07%. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage also saw a…
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume by the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly survey, saw a month-over-month increase of 10.7% on a seasonally adjusted (SA) basis. Compared to last August, the index increased by 20.8%. While the Purchase Index declined by 2.9%, month-over-month, the Refinance Index jumped 30.8% as borrowers…
House price appreciation was recorded in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Limited resale inventory and strong growth in demand continued to put upward pressure on house prices. Nationally, house prices grew at a relatively slower pace, compared to double-digit annual growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the quarterly all-transactions House Price…
Due to slowing home construction and elevated interest rates, the count of open construction sector jobs continued to decline in July, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). However, this shift lower is also consistent with a cooler overall labor market, which is a positive sign for future inflation readings…
In 2022, the total count of second homes was 6.5 million representing 4.6% of the total housing stock, according to NAHB estimates. This reflects a decline from 2020, when the number of second homes stood at 7.15 million. As of 2022, the state with the largest stock of second homes was Florida (1 million), accounting…
Private residential construction spending fell 0.4% in July, according to the Census Construction Spending data. Nevertheless, spending remained 7.7% higher compared to a year ago. The monthly decline in total private construction spending for July was largely due to reduced spending on single-family construction. Spending on single-family construction plunged by 1.9% in July, following a…
