New NAHB analysis of single-family permits shows which Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) have been trending in the same direction as U.S. single-family permits. Using single-family permits from 2012-2022, five-year and ten-year correlations are used to create an association index for each MSA that describes how similar, or dissimilar, particular MSAs are when compared to the…
Mortgage rates that hit more than a 20-year high, coupled with elevated construction costs and excessive regulatory costs, left housing affordability in the fourth quarter of 2023 virtually unchanged from the previous quarter and holding near its lowest level in more than a decade. According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing…
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released new 30-year population growth projections that include substantial upward revisions to the net immigration rates and slightly lower projected rates of mortality from COVID-19. As a result, the revised population estimates now include an additional 8.9 million people in 2053, a 2.4% increase from its previous forecast. A faster…
Per the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) survey through the week ending February 2nd, total mortgage activity increased 3.7% from the previous week, and the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) rate rose two basis points to 6.80%. The 30-year FRM has floated around 6.8% for much of the start of the year, only moving one basis…
The latest CPS/HVS data shows that the overall homeownership rate was 65.7% in the last quarter of 2023. This was 3.5 percentage points lower from the peak of 69.4% in 2004. In this post, we focus on the homeownership rates by race and ethnicity over the past decade. According to data from the Census Bureau,…
According to the data released by Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), private fixed investment in student dormitories inched up 1.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of $3.96 billion in the last quarter of 2023, after a 5.5% increase in the third quarter. Private fixed investment in dorms was 10.2% higher than a year…
The U.S. economy entered the new year with a strong gain in payroll employment and an unchanged unemployment rate. Job gains in November and December were much stronger than initially estimated, according to revisions of the establishment survey data. January’s jobs report shows that the job market remains unexpectedly strong despite the impact of the…
