Residential building workers’ wage growth accelerated to 9.0% in June. This marks the fastest year-over-year (YOY) growth rate since December 2018. After a 0.3% increase in June 2023, the YOY growth rate for residential building worker wages have been trending upward over the past year....
In July, job growth decelerated significantly, and the unemployment rate increased to a nearly three-year high of 4.3%. The July data indicates that the labor market is slowing, which signals monetary policy easing in the months ahead. Additionally, wage growth slowed for the second month...
Mortgage rates continued to decrease in July, landing at an average rate of 6.85%. According to Freddie Mac, the average monthly rate fell by 7 basis points (bps) from June’s rate of 6.92%. This current rate is nearly identical to the rate from one year...
Private residential construction spending was down 0.3% in June, after a dip of 0.7% in the prior month, according to the Census Construction Spending data. Nevertheless, it remained 7.3% higher compared to a year ago. The monthly decline in total private construction spending for June...
Since the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) in 2017, tax returns that itemize Schedule A deductions, such as the mortgage interest deduction (MID) , have fallen significantly with only 9.6% of all returns using an itemized deduction in tax year 2021....
The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy committee once again held constant the federal funds rate at a top target of 5.5% at the conclusion of its July meeting. In its statement, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) noted: “Recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued...
The U.S. homeownership rate was 65.6% in the second quarter of 2024, unchanged from the first quarter of 2024, according to the Census’s Housing Vacancies and Homeownership Survey (HVS). However, this marks the lowest rate in the last two years. The homeownership rate is below...
Nationwide, the share of non-conventional financing for new home sales accounted for 32.4% of the market per NAHB analysis of the 2023 Census Bureau Survey of Construction (SOC) data. This is a significant 4.3 percentage point increase from the 2022 share of 28.1%. As in...
Home prices experienced a third year-over-year deceleration in May, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index. On a year-over-year basis, the non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) index posted a 5.94% annual gain in May, down from a 6.39% increase in April. Since June...
Due to slowing home construction and elevated interest rates, the count of open construction sector jobs shifted lower in June, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). However, this shift lower is consistent with a somewhat cooler labor market,...
Private fixed investment in student dormitories declined 5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of $3.7 billion in the second quarter of 2024, after a 2.8% decrease in the prior quarter. Private fixed investment in dorms was 0.4% lower than a year ago, as...
Personal income inched up 0.2% in June, down from a 0.4% increase in the prior month, according to the most recent data release from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). Gains in personal income are largely driven by increases in wages and salaries. As spending...
The number of homes started in 2023 exceeding 5,000 square feet, dropped to 26,000, a decrease from 29,000 in 2022, according to the annual data from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC). In 2006, the number of new 5,000+ square foot homes reached a...
All-cash purchases accounted for 6.9% of new home sales in the second quarter of 2024, the lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2021, revealed by NAHB analysis of the most recent Census Quarterly Sales by Price and Financing report. Among mortgaged home sales, both...
Housing’s share of the economy stayed level at 16.1% in the second quarter of 2024. The share remained above 16% after staying constant at 15.9% for all of 2023. The more cyclical home building and remodeling component – residential fixed investment (RFI) – was 4.0%...
In the second quarter of 2024, the U.S. economy grew twice as fast as it did in the first quarter, supported by consumer spending and private inventory investment. Furthermore, the data from the GDP report suggests that inflation is cooling. The GDP price index rose...
The production index for sawmills and wood preservation industries fell at the start of 2024 to 91.9 in the first quarter (the index measures real output during 2017 at a level of 100). This is the second straight decline for the quarterly level according to...
New home sales fell to the lowest level since November 2023, as elevated mortgage rates continued to keep buyers on hold. Sales of newly built, single-family homes in June fell 0.6% to a 617,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate from a slight upwardly revised reading in...
