According to the Federal Reserve’s latest G.19 Consumer Credit report, the growth of total consumer credit outstanding slowed from 7.4% to 5.4% (seasonally adjusted annual rate) in the first quarter of 2023. Nonrevolving (excluding real estate debt) and revolving debt grew 3.1% and 12.3%, respectively,...
Job gains continued in April, despite rising interest rates and a slowing economy. After a revised 165,000 job gain in March, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 253,000 in April, and the unemployment rate declined to 3.4% from 3.5% in March. In April, on a...
An earlier post revealed that 71% of buyers who were actively engaged in the process of finding a home in the first quarter of 2023 have spent 3+ months searching for a home without success. The inability to find an affordable home remains the most...
The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy committee raised the federal funds target rate by 25 basis points at the conclusion of its May meeting. Although the communication from the Fed did not explicitly indicate that they are done tightening, language used in their statement signals the...
The Census Bureau’s Housing Vacancy Survey (CPS/HVS) reported the U.S. homeownership rate at 66% in the first quarter of 2023, amid persistently tight housing supply. The homeownership rate remained statistically unchanged from the fourth quarter reading (65.9%). It is 0.6 percentage points higher than the...
The count of open, unfilled jobs for the overall economy declined again in March, falling to 9.6 million, after an 11.2 million reading in December, which was the highest level since July. The count of open jobs was 12 million a year ago in March...
Private residential construction spending inched down 0.2% in March, as spending on single-family construction decreased 0.8%. Spending on private residential construction declined for the tenth month in a row amid elevated mortgage interest rates. Consequently, this spending is 10% lower compared to a year ago....
Improvements in affordability expectations have led to an increase in the share of prospective buyers who have moved beyond just the planning phase of their home search: 56% report being actively engaged in the purchase process in the first quarter of 2023, up from 46%...
The most recent data release from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) showed that personal income increased 0.3% in March. The pace of personal income growth slowed after reaching a 0.8% monthly gain in October. Gains in personal income are largely driven by increases in...
Relatively lower interest rates (compared to fall 2022), slowing growth in home prices, and builder incentives are making an impact on buyers’ affordability expectations. In the first quarter of 2023, 73% of buyers reported being able to afford less than half the homes for-sale in...
Housing’s share of the economy moved lower at the end of the first quarter of 2023. Overall GDP increased at a 1.1% annual rate, following a 2.6% increase in the fourth quarter of 2022 and 3.2% increase in the third quarter of 2022. Despite overall...
In the first quarter of 2023, economic growth slowed to an annual rate of 1.1%, amid rising interest rates and an ongoing banking crisis. This quarter’s growth was dragged down by decreases in private inventory investment and residential fixed investment. Private inventory investment subtracted 2.26...
After souring significantly in the final quarter of 2022, buyers’ expectations of housing availability edged up slightly in the first quarter of 2023, with 26% expecting the home search to get easier in the months ahead, just ahead of the 24% a quarter earlier. Despite...
Despite a housing market slowdown but reflecting persistent long-term labor challenges, wages in construction continue to rise, often outpacing and exceeding typical earnings in other industries. According to the latest Current Employment Statistics (CES) report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), average hourly earnings...
NAHB analysis of the most recent Quarterly Sales by Price and Financing report published by the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that the share of new home sales backed by FHA loans jumped from 8.4% to 11.7% in the first quarter of 2023. It is the...
Interest for new home construction was essentially unchanged between the final quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023, as the share of prospective buyers looking to buy a newly built home barely edged from 20% to 21%. Meanwhile, the share interested in existing...
Lower mortgage rates and limited existing inventory helped to push new home sales up in March, even as builders continue to grapple with increased construction costs and material supply disruptions. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau estimated sales...
The retreat in mortgage interest rates during the first quarter of 2023 (from the 20-year peak reached in the fall of 2022) led a record share of adults in the US – 18 percent – to declare having plans to buy a home within a...
