Job growth accelerated in May. Total payroll employment rose by 339,000 and the unemployment rate rose to 3.7%. While labor demand remained strong, wage pressures eased from a year ago. In May, wage growth slowed to a 4.3% year-over-year gain, from 4.4% last month, and down 1.6 percentage points from a 5.9% gain in March…
Private residential construction spending inched up 0.5% in April, as spending on multifamily homes increased 0.6%. Private residential construction spending increased for the first time since June 2022 amid elevated mortgage interest rates. However, it is still 9.2% lower compared to a year ago. The total construction monthly increase is largely attributed to more spending…
Despite some negative reporting about private builder access to acquisition, development and construction (AD&C) financing, the volume of total outstanding loans posted a gain during the first quarter of 2023, albeit at the slowest growth rate since the end of 2020. Nonetheless, interest rates for these loans have increased as the Fed has raised the…
The count of open, unfilled jobs for the overall economy moved higher in April, rising to 10.1 million and complicating the June Federal Reserve decision. The higher job opening count for April increases the chance of another rate hike despite some speculation that May was the end of tightening. The count of open jobs was…
After seven consecutive months of decline, home prices climbed for a second straight month in March as low inventory levels persist. Locally, five metro areas, reported by S&P Dow Jones Indices, experienced negative home price appreciation in March. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, reported by S&P Dow Jones Indices, rose at…
While mortgage rates were stabilizing in the first quarter of 2023, rates on loans for Acquisition, Development & Construction (AD&C) continued to climb, according to NAHB’s quarterly Survey on AD&C Financing. From the last quarter of 2022 to the first quarter of 2023, the average effective rate (based on rate of return to the lender…
Data from the Census Bureau’s latest Survey of Market Absorptions of New Multifamily Units (SOMA) indicates that multifamily market demand has softened as the percentage of apartments absorbed within the first 3 months of completion fell to 59.0% after six consecutive quarters of above 60.0% percent absorption. The absorption rate of unfurnished, unsubsidized apartments (the…
