Eye On Housing
Author Archives
-
Total Consumer Credit in May Decreases
The Federal Reserve’s latest G.19 Consumer Credit Report shows trends in consumer credit, excluding loans secured by real estate, through May 2020. In May, consumer credit decreased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.3% from the previous month, with revolving debt1 decreasing by 28.6% and nonrevolving debt2 increasing by 2.3 percent. Consumer credit totaled $4.1 trillion on a seasonally… Read More ›
-
Mortgage Purchasing Reaches Highest Level in over 10 Years
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Weekly Application shows an uptick in applications for the week ending July 3, 2020. The Market Composite Index increased by 2.2% from the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis and its constituent Purchasing and Refinancing indices increased by 5.3% and 0.4%, respectively. The MBA’s 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate fell to a new record… Read More ›
-
Treasury-Mortgage Spread Stays Constant in June
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate has been known to follow, albeit loosely, the 10-year Treasury yield. The latter is a widely tracked economic indicator and serves not only as a sign for the pulse of the U.S. economy, but also as a premium for pricing myriad financial instruments, upon which characteristics specific to the financial instrument are added. As 10-year… Read More ›
-
Correlation Between Low Housing Supply and Purchase Loan Size
Despite the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) tracked 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rate moving further downward, by one basis point from the previous week to a new record low of 3.29%, mortgage activity slowed, per the latest Weekly Application Survey. The Market Composite Index, representing purchasing and refinancing activities, decreased by 1.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier, with… Read More ›
-
Mortgage Activity Decelerates
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Weekly Application shows a mild slowdown in purchase and refinancing activity from the previous week, on a seasonally adjusted basis. The Market Composite Index decreased by 8.7% and its constituent Purchasing and Refinancing indices decreased by 3.0% and 11.7%, respectively. The MBA’s 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate remained unchanged from the previous week at the… Read More ›
-
Virus Impacts: Single-Family and Multifamily Market Concentrations
The first quarter of 2020 witnessed a shift in home building towards less population-dense housing markets in the United States, a trend which was greatly hastened by the onset of COVID-19. While most states issued statewide stay-at-home orders with exemption for construction, some of the hardest-hit states had no exemptions for construction when the pandemic first hit. While NAHB’s Home… Read More ›
-
Purchasing and Refinance Activity Thrive Amid Low Rates
As the Mortgage Bankers Association’s 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate reached a new historic low of 3.3%, sliding down by 8 basis points from the previous week, its benchmark Market Composite Index increased by 8% from the previous week, on a seasonally adjusted basis. Purchase applications increased to the highest level in over 11 years and for the ninth consecutive week…. Read More ›
-
Multifamily Construction Shines Brighter in EHS Markets
While the question of when the first cases of the novel coronavirus to reach American soil occurred is contested, its rapid spread in the United States by the end of the first quarter of 2020 has been transformative. During this crisis, the nation’s health infrastructure has been in focus. NAHB’s Home Building Geography Index (HBGI), in addition to covering the… Read More ›
-
Household Balance Sheets: 1Q20
The first quarter of 2020’s Financial Accounts of the United States, the Federal Reserve’s flow of funds data, show the aggregate values of households’ assets and liabilities in the nation. Households’ real estate assets totaled $30.3 trillion and liabilities totaled $10.7 trillion, making homeowners’ equity $19.7 trillion or 65% of total household real estate. The first quarter’s data saw a… Read More ›
-
Home Purchasing Climbs for Eighth Straight Week
The latest round of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Application Survey showed an increase in its benchmark Market Composite Index for the week ending on June 5 by 9.3% from the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis. Refinancing activity, which had been showing week-to-week declines since the second week of April, showed a sharp turnaround this week and… Read More ›