As rapid rising mortgage rates continue to weaken housing demand, the volume of existing home sales has declined for ten consecutive months as of November, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). This is the longest run of declines since 1999. While mortgage rates...
Single-family housing starts continued to fall in November, with the pace of construction down 32% since February when mortgage rates began to rise. The housing market continues to weaken because stubbornly high construction costs and elevated interest rates are harming housing affordability. And with the...
High mortgage rates, elevated construction costs running well above the inflation rate, and flagging consumer demand due to deteriorating affordability conditions have dragged builder sentiment down every month in 2022. Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes posted its 12th straight monthly...
Nonfarm payroll employment increased in 43 states and the District of Columbia in November compared to the previous month, while seven states lost jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nationwide total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 263,000 in November, following a gain of...
Over the first ten months of 2022, the total number of single-family permits issued year-to-date (YTD) nationwide reached 865,815. On a year-over-year (YoY) basis, this is 8.7% below the October 2021 level of 948,321. Year-to-date ending in October, single-family permits declined in all four regions....
Reflecting the unprecedented housing shortages across the United States in the post-pandemic market, U.S. vacancy rates hit their lowest readings in decades in 2021. According to NAHB’s analysis of the 2021 American Community Survey (ACS), owner vacancy rates dropped below 0.9% and rental vacancy rates...
According to data from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC), 65.5 percent of single-family homes started in 2021 were built within a community or homeowner’s association. Since the re-design of the SOC in 2009, this was the second highest percentage for new homes started...
Real estate taxes vary widely across states both in terms of annual taxes paid as well as effective tax rates. In 2021, the difference between average real estate taxes (RETs) paid by New Jersey and Alabama home owners was $8,336. New Jersey continued its perennial...
Downshifting its pace of tightening of monetary policy, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy committee raised the federal funds target rate by 50 basis points, increasing that target to an upper bound of 4.5%. This marked a relatively smaller increase after four previous 75 basis point...
Per the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) survey through the week ending December 9th, total mortgage activity increased 3.2% from the previous week and the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) rate rose one basis points to 6.42%. The FRM rate has fallen 48 basis points over...
Consumer prices in November saw the smallest year-over-year gain since December 2021.While still elevated, inflation experienced the second month below an 8% annual growth rate since February 2022. However, the shelter index continued to rise at an accelerated pace and was more than offsetting decreases...
The most recent release of the Z.1 Financial Accounts of the United States shows a sharp slowdown in the quarter-over-quarter growth of households’ real estate assets. After six consecutive quarters of above 3 percent growth quarter-over-quarter, the third quarter of 2022 saw a 1.74% increase...
The prices of building materials decreased 0.3% in November (not seasonally adjusted) following 0.5% and 0.1% declines in September and October, respectively, according to the latest Producer Price Index (PPI) report. The index has decreased five of six months for the first time since 2015....
According to data from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC), custom homes accounted for 17.6 percent of new single-family homes started—down slightly from the 17.8 percent recorded in 2020 and the lowest the annual custom home share has been since the 2005 re-design of...
The Census Bureau’s latest Survey of Construction (SOC) shows modest changes in the share of number of bedrooms for new single-family homes in 2021 compared with the previous year. The current estimates indicate the share of new single-family homes with 2 bedrooms or less is...
The most recent Home Building Geography Index (HBGI) shows that single-family home building slowed down its pace in the exurban areas, which experienced strong growth since the pandemic. Both high mortgage rates and supply-chain disruptions have put a damper on the housing market. The growth...
In November of 2022, 36 percent of single-family home builders reported reducing their prices, and 59 percent were offering special sales incentives. These percentages may seem relatively high—and in fact they have increased significantly since July of this year—but they are nowhere near as high...
In November, job growth slowed slightly from the previous month but still showed strength despite tight monetary policy. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.7% in November as the number of persons in the labor force decreased for the third straight month. Total nonfarm payroll...
