Eye On Housing
As the novel coronavirus took hold in the second quarter, households’ market values continued to rise, per second quarter 2020 Federal Reserve Flow of Funds report. In the second quarter, the aggregate value of all household mortgages rose by $80 billion to $10.6 trillion, while the aggregate value of the households’ market values, i.e., that of all owner-occupied real estate… 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 ›
Amid widespread job losses and other economic hardship resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, all the U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia experienced quarterly percentage increases in home loans past due, according to the seasonally adjusted Q2 2020 results of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Q2 2020 National Delinquency Survey. In the second quarter of this year, on… Read More ›
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Weekly Application shows a slight decrease in applications for the week ending July 24, 2020. The Market Composite Index decreased by 0.8% from the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis. Refinancing activity, one of its determinants, decreased by 0.4% from the previous week, while purchasing activity decreased slightly more by 1.5%. The MBA’s… Read More ›
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Weekly Application shows an uptick in applications for the week ending July 10, 2020. The Market Composite Index increased by 5.1% from the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis, owing mainly to the surge in refinancing activity of 11.9% compared to a week before. The increase was partially offset by the slowdown of… Read More ›
Despite the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) tracked 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rate moving further downward, by one basis point from the previous week to a new record low of 3.29%, mortgage activity slowed, per the latest Weekly Application Survey. The Market Composite Index, representing purchasing and refinancing activities, decreased by 1.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier, with… Read More ›
The first quarter of 2020 witnessed a shift in home building towards less population-dense housing markets in the United States, a trend which was greatly hastened by the onset of COVID-19. While most states issued statewide stay-at-home orders with exemption for construction, some of the hardest-hit states had no exemptions for construction when the pandemic first hit. While NAHB’s Home… Read More ›
As the Mortgage Bankers Association’s 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate reached a new historic low of 3.3%, sliding down by 8 basis points from the previous week, its benchmark Market Composite Index increased by 8% from the previous week, on a seasonally adjusted basis. Purchase applications increased to the highest level in over 11 years and for the ninth consecutive week…. Read More ›
Weekly initial jobless claims declined slightly in the week ending June 13 and continuing claims, which lags initial jobless claims by one week, declined to 20.5 million in the week ending June 6. While some workers are returning to work, albeit slowly, as coronavirus restrictions are gradually eased, others are being laid off as companies are closing permanently in wake… Read More ›
While the question of when the first cases of the novel coronavirus to reach American soil occurred is contested, its rapid spread in the United States by the end of the first quarter of 2020 has been transformative. During this crisis, the nation’s health infrastructure has been in focus. NAHB’s Home Building Geography Index (HBGI), in addition to covering the… Read More ›