Despite higher mortgage rates, limited resale inventory and strong growth in demand continued to put upward pressure on house prices. House price appreciation was recorded in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. According to the quarterly all-transactions House Price Index (HPI) released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), U.S. house prices rose…
Existing home sales fell for the second straight month in April, after a big monthly drop in March, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Meanwhile, low resale inventory and strong demand continued to drive up existing home prices, marking the tenth consecutive month of year-over-year median sales price gains. Due to elevated interest…
Both overall and core inflation eased slightly in April amid higher costs for gasoline and shelter. On a year-over-year (YOY) basis, the shelter index rose by 5.5% in April, following a 5.7% increase in March. Despite a slowdown in the YOY increase, shelter costs continue to put upward pressure on inflation, accounting for nearly 70%…
In March, residential building workers’ wages continued to grow but at a relatively slower pace. After an acceleration of a 6.2% increase in the previous month, the year-over-year (YOY) growth rate for residential building worker wages slowed to 5.1% in March. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report, average hourly earnings (AHE) for…
Job growth slowed in April, and the unemployment rate increased to 3.9%, suggesting a cooling labor market after a strong start to the year. Additionally, wage growth continued to slow. In April, wages grew at a 3.9% year-over-year (YOY) growth rate, down 0.7 percentage points from a year ago. It marks the lowest YOY wage…
Compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, the U.S. economy grew at a noticeably slower pace in the first quarter of 2024 due to an increase in the trade deficit and weaker inventory investment. But it was still on solid ground supported by consumers, the government, and the housing industry. Meanwhile, the data from the…
Residential building workers’ wage growth accelerated to 6.2% in February. After a 0.3% increase in June 2023, the year-over-year (YOY) growth rate for residential building worker wages have been trending up over the past eight months. The recent acceleration in wage growth was mainly due to the ongoing skilled labor shortage in the construction labor…
