Tag Archive for ‘coronavirus’

Revolving Credit Rises in the First Quarter

In the first quarter of 2021, consumer credit increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate by 5.1%, with revolving debt1 increasing by 2.4% and nonrevolving debt2 increasing by 5.9%. Consumer credit totaled $4.2 trillion on a seasonally adjusted annual basis, with $980 billion comprised of revolving debt and $3.3 trillion in nonrevolving debt. This outstanding level marks a total increase of $54 billion… Read More ›

4Q20 Home Building Geography Index: Diversity Measures

The topic of diversity, and its relationship to homeownership and home building, carries significant implications for policy making, social justice, and equity. In addition to the usual regional classification, NAHB’s Q4 2020 Home Building Geography Index (HBGI) provides a segmentation of the housing market based on county-level measurements of racial and ethnic heterogeneity. For this purpose, we use ESRI’s1 2018… Read More ›

Regional Submarkets See Multifamily Residential Construction Decline in Q4 2020

As part of the latest iteration of NAHB’s Home Building Geography Index (HBGI), it was previously shown that single-family homebuilding in the fourth quarter of 2020 continued a trend of a suburban shift to lower density markets. However, for multifamily residential construction, what started as double-digit growth in all the HBGI’s Regional submarkets in the first quarter of 2020 devolved… Read More ›

Revolving Credit Decreased in January

In January 2020, consumer credit decreased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate by 0.4% from the previous month, with revolving debt1 decreasing by 12.2% and nonrevolving debt2 increasing by 3.2%. Consumer credit totaled $4.2 trillion on a seasonally adjusted annual basis, with $965 billion comprised of revolving debt and $3.2 trillion in nonrevolving debt. This marks a total decrease of $1.3 billion from… Read More ›

NAHB 4th Quarter HBGI: Suburban Shift for Construction in 2020

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 ›

Little Change for Total Consumer Credit in 2020

As with most things in 2020, consumer credit’s trajectory of growth was upended by the COVID-19-induced economic recession. Revolving credit, of which credit card debt is a major component, shrank by 11.2% over the year, while nonrevolving credit increased 3.9%, thus producing an overall growth rate of 0.0%. In December, consumer credit increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of… Read More ›

Refinancing Soars in First Full Week of New Year

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Weekly Application Survey shows that, for the week ending January 8, 2021, mortgage application activity increased by 16.7% from the prior week on a seasonally adjusted basis, as indicated by its Market Composite Index. One of its two constituent indexes, the Purchasing Index, increased by 8% from the previous week while the other, the… Read More ›

Multifamily Construction Shifts to Lower Density Markets in 3Q20

Multifamily construction shifted into less dense markets during the third quarter of 2020, per the latest NAHB Homebuilding Geography Index (HBGI). This change is similar to the evolving geography for single-family home building, as housing demand moved to lower cost, more affordable markets. The multifamily data confirm that these shifts in demand are not just occurring for single-family home building… Read More ›