Elevated interest rates, stubbornly high building material costs and declining affordability conditions that are pushing more buyers to the sidelines continue to drag down builder sentiment. Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes posted its 11th straight monthly decline in November, dropping...
The prices of building materials decreased 0.2% in October (not seasonally adjusted) following a 0.5% decline in September according to the latest Producer Price Index (PPI) report. The index has decreased four of five months for the first time since 2015. The PPI for goods...
Over the first nine months of 2022, the total number of single-family permits issued year-to-date (YTD) nationwide reached 800,424. On a year-over-year (YoY) basis, this is 7.4% below the September 2021 level of 864,184. Year-to-date ending in September, single-family permits declined in all four regions....
As a previous post has shown, the share of new homes with patios increased for the sixth year in a row in 2021, to a post-2004 high of 63.0 percent At the same time, the share with decks was trending in the opposite direction, declining...
Consumer prices in October saw the smallest year-over-year gain since January 2022, and while still elevated, inflation experienced the first month below an 8% annual growth rate since February 2022. However, the shelter index continued to rise at an accelerated pace and the energy index...
Rising mortgage rates, high inflation, ongoing building material supply chain disruptions, and elevated home prices contributed to housing affordability falling – yet again – to its lowest point since the Great Recession in the third quarter of 2022. According to the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity...
Per the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) survey through the week ending November 4th, total mortgage activity declined 0.1% from the previous week and the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) rate rose eight basis points to 7.14%. The FRM rate has risen 33 basis points over...
According to the Federal Reserve’s latest G.19 Consumer Credit report, consumer credit (ex-real estate) grew at a seasonal adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 6.8% in the third quarter of 2022. Revolving debt increased at a 12.9% rate, more than double the pace of nonrevolving debt...
NAHB analysis of information published in Builder Magazine’s annual Local Leaders lists shows that large builders gained market share across all tiers on average from 2009 to 2021 in major housing markets; market concentration, as calculated with top four firms in a metropolitan statistical area...
Job growth slowed in October as the Fed continues its tightening of financial conditions to fight inflation, but the overall labor market remains tight. The unemployment rate increased by 0.2 percentage points to 3.7% in October as the number of persons in the labor force...
Spurred by elevated savings early in the pandemic and encouraged by lower interest rates, rising numbers of young adults left parental homes in 2021. As a result, the share of young adults ages 25-34 living with parents or parents-in-law declined and now stands at 20.2%,...
The Census Bureau’s latest Survey of Construction (SOC) shows slight changes in the number of full and half bathrooms for new single-family homes started in 2021 compared to 2020. The current data shows that 3.1% of new single-family homes started had one full bathroom or...
Continuing its tightening of financial conditions to bring the rate of inflation lower, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy committee raised the federal funds target rate by 75 basis points, increasing that target to an upper bound of 4%. This marks the fourth consecutive meeting with...
The Census Bureau’s Housing Vacancy Survey (CPS/HVS) reported the U.S. homeownership rate at 66% in the third quarter of 2022, which is statistically unchanged from the last quarter reading (65.8%). It is 0.6 percentage points higher than the rate in the third quarter of 2021....
An earlier post revealed that a record 70% of buyers who were actively engaged in the process of finding a home in the third quarter of 2022 have spent 3+ months searching for a home without success. Those buyers also have higher incomes and education...
Private residential construction spending was virtually unchanged in September, with spending on single-family construction dropping just 2.6%. The value of September private residential construction put in place was at an annual pace of $918 billion, about 12.7% higher compared to a year ago. The monthly...
The count of open, unfilled jobs for the overall economy increased in September, rising from 10.3 million open positions to 10.71 million. This represents a small increase from a year ago (10.67 million). This increase occurs despite signs of a slowing economy amidst aggressive monetary...
Higher interest rates are pricing out some (not all) buyers, but also transforming remaining prospects into active buyers. In the third quarter of 2022, 59% of prospective buyers had moved beyond the planning phase and become fully engaged in the buying process, up from 46%...
