Job growth accelerated in July amid higher inflation and growing economic pressures. Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 528,000, and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5% in July. Construction industry employment (both residential and non-residential) totaled 7.7 million and has exceeded its February 2020...
Headship rates for all age groups have been trending lower over the last two decades, with important implications for the demand for home building. The latest Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) data show that the pandemic housing boom brought this...
An earlier post revealed that 63% of buyers who were actively engaged in the process of finding a home in the 2nd quarter of 2022 have spent 3+ months searching for a home without success. The most common reason these long-term searchers cite for not...
Housing’s share of the economy edged lower at the end of the first half of 2022. For the second quarter of 2022, overall GDP declined at a 0.9% annual rate, following a 1.6% decrease in the first quarter. Housing’s share of GDP decreased to 16.6%,...
In the second quarter iteration of the Federal Reserve Board’s Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SLOOS) on Bank Lending Practices, banks reported largely unchanged lending standards across all residential real estate (RRE) loans. Major net shares of banks reported weaker demand for most RRE loans...
The share of prospective home buyers who are actively engaged in the process to buy a home rose to 49% in the second quarter of 2022, after declining for three straight quarters. The pivot is likely driven by less competition from buyers who have exited...
The Census Bureau’s Housing Vacancy Survey (CPS/HVS) reported the U.S. homeownership rate at 65.8% in the second quarter of 2022, which is statistically unchanged from the last quarter reading (65.4%). The national rental vacancy rate slipped to 5.6%, while the homeowner vacancy rate stayed at...
For the first time since 2020, affordability expectations improved in the second quarter of 2022. After rising steadily for five straight quarters, the share of buyers who can only afford a minority of the homes for sale in their markets declined to 77%, down from...
As mortgage rates reached 3-year high, private residential construction spending decreased 1.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of $923.7 billion in June, according to NAHB’s analysis of the Census Construction Spending data. It was the first decline since May 2020. On a year-over-year...
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...
