For the first time since 2020, prospective buyers expect housing availability to improve. After falling steadily for five quarters, the share expecting the home search to get easier in the months ahead grew from 17% to 22% between the first and second quarters of 2022....
The most recent data release from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) showed that personal income increased 0.6% in June, making its ninth monthly increase in the past 12 months. Gains in personal income are largely driven by increases in compensation of employees and proprietors’...
After falling steadily for five quarters, the popularity of new homes rebounded in the second quarter of 2022, as 21% of prospective buyers reported looking for a newly-built home – up from 19% a quarter earlier. A possible reason for this pivot is the recent...
The U.S. economy definitively slowed in the first half of 2022 as the Federal Reserve tightened financial conditions. Real GDP fell for the second straight quarter, while the Fed raised interest rates by 75 basis points for the second consecutive month to reduce inflation pressure....
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 2.5%. This move matches the June rate hike...
NAHB analysis of the most recent Quarterly Sales by Price and Financing published by the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that the four-quarter moving average (MA) share of new home sales financed through FHA was 11.0% in Q2 2022–its smallest share since early 2008. Conventional loans...
New single-family home sales declined in June due to rising mortgage rates and worsening affordability conditions. Per Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage was 5.10% at the end of May and climbed to 5.70% by the end of June. The U.S. Department of Housing...
The share of adults planning a home purchase within a year stood at 13% in the second quarter of 2022, unchanged from the previous quarter, but lower than a year earlier (17%). The leveled reading suggests that, after shrinking for the past three quarters, the...
Nonfarm payroll employment increased in 38 states in June compared to the previous month while 11 states and the District of Columbia lost jobs. Rhode Island reported no change. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nationwide total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 372,000 in...
Lumber prices have been on a roller-coaster ride over the past two years and reached to an all-time high price of $1,515 per thousand board feet in the week ending May 21, 2021, as reported by Random Lengths. However, despite higher lumber prices and ongoing...
The 2021 Survey of Construction (SOC) from the Census Bureau shows that the average completion time of a single-family house is around 8.2 months, which typically includes a little over a month from authorization to start and another 7.1 months to finish the construction. Moreover,...
As rising mortgage rates and higher home prices weighed on housing affordability, existing home sales declined for five consecutive months, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The trend in home price appreciation continued albeit at a slower rate as supply finally showed sign...
Increased interest rates, building material supply chain bottlenecks and elevated construction costs continue to put a damper on the single-family housing market. For the first time since June 2020, both single-family starts and permits fell below a one million annual pace. Overall housing starts fell...
The prices of goods used in residential construction climbed 1.5% in June (not seasonally adjusted) even as softwood lumber prices fell 23%, according to the latest Producer Price Index (PPI) report. Prices have surged 41.7% since January 2020. Building materials (i.e., goods inputs to residential...
Builder confidence plunged in July as high inflation and increased interest rates stalled the housing market by dramatically slowing sales and buyer traffic. In a further sign of a weakening housing market, builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes posted its seventh...
Over the first five months of 2022, the total number of single-family permits issued year-to-date (YTD) nationwide reached 473,997. On a year-over-year (YoY) basis, this is a 2.0% decline over the May 2021 level of 483,878. Year-to-date ending in May, single-family permits declined in three...
Since the relatively low point at the onset of the pandemic on April 17, 2020, lumber prices have been volatile, with record setting spikes interspersed with periods of substantial declines. On balance over the entire period, however, softwood lumber prices have increased enough to add...
The NAHB/Westlake Royal Remodeling Market Index (RMI) for the second quarter of 2022 posted a reading of 77, declining 10 points from the second quarter of 2021. This is the largest year-over-year decrease since the survey was redesigned in Q1 2020. The RMI is based...
