Eye On Housing
Per the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), through the week ending June 3, total mortgage activity decreased, with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) rate increasing to 5.45%, on average. The latest week’s rate increased to 5.4%, after 3 consecutive weeks of declines, each by a few basis points. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased by… Read More ›
In September, national home prices grew at a slower but still unsustainable pace. Locally, 14 out of 20 metro areas reported that they realized a deceleration in home price growth in September. This month’s data indicates that housing market is cooling slightly as housing affordability concerns persist. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index, reported by S&P Dow… Read More ›
The suburban shift in home building to meet growing buyer preferences for lower density, lower cost markets stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic that was first reported in the second quarter National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Home Building Geography Index (HBGI) has continued throughout the rest of 2020. Single-family construction continued to overperform in suburbs, exurbs and rural communities, according… Read More ›
Earlier we published a post highlighting lower operating costs per dollar value for new homes. This post takes the analysis a step further and shows that home buyers can afford to pay a 36% premium for a new single-family detached house, compared to the one built before 1960, simply because it is new and has lower operating and maintenance costs…. Read More ›
The Q2 2020 results of NAHB’s Home Building Geography Index (HBGI) show geographical trends of the home building industry as the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, spread quickly through the United States. Although the pandemic caused widespread economic impacts for many businesses, housing has weathered the economic storm, rebounding quickly from an April slump. Moreover, data from the second quarter NAHB HBGI… Read More ›
In January, NAHB released its new Priced-Out Estimates for 2020. A previous post discussed the often-cited estimate that a $1,000 increase in the price of a median-priced new home will price 158,857 U.S. households out of the market for the home. A second post discussed the related estimate that a quarter point increase in the mortgage rate will price out… Read More ›
The shortage of lots that has been hindering the housing recovery eased somewhat in 2019, but remains elevated by historical standards, according to a recent survey conducted by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). The survey consisted of a set of special questions included on the instrument for the September 2019 NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). The survey asked… Read More ›
Only 41 percent of single-family homes started in 2018 included fireplaces, according to NAHB tabulation of recently released data from the Survey of Construction (produced by the U.S. Census Bureau with partial funding from HUD). This percentage is the lowest on record since NAHB began tabulating the data in a consistent fashion in 2001. Since 2015, the share of single-family… Read More ›
Labor and subcontractor shortages remained widespread in July of 2019 and are continuing to impact the industry in a number of ways—including putting additional upward pressure on new home prices— according to results from special questions on the survey for the NAHB/Well Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). In July, the HMI survey asked builders specifically about shortages in 16 different occupations. … Read More ›
Following a sharp decline in March, existing home sales, released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), continued to fell in April despite lower interest rates and a strong labor market. Total existing home sales, including single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, declined 0.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.19 million in April. On a year-over-year basis, sales were… Read More ›