Eye On Housing
The first quarter of 2020’s Financial Accounts of the United States, the Federal Reserve’s flow of funds data, show the aggregate values of households’ assets and liabilities in the nation. Households’ real estate assets totaled $30.3 trillion and liabilities totaled $10.7 trillion, making homeowners’ equity $19.7 trillion or 65% of total household real estate. The first quarter’s data saw a… Read More ›
Weekly initial jobless claims continued to decline in the week ending June 6 and continuing claims, which lags initial jobless claims by one week, declined to 20.9 million in the week ending May 30. The data indicate that workers are returning to work, albeit slowly, as coronavirus restrictions are gradually eased. The U.S. Department of Labor released the Unemployment Insurance… Read More ›
The latest round of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Application Survey showed an increase in its benchmark Market Composite Index for the week ending on June 5 by 9.3% from the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis. Refinancing activity, which had been showing week-to-week declines since the second week of April, showed a sharp turnaround this week and… Read More ›
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate has been known to follow, albeit loosely, the 10-year Treasury yield. The latter is a widely tracked economic indicator and serves not only as a sign for the pulse of the U.S. economy, but also as a premium for pricing myriad financial instruments, upon which characteristics specific to the financial instrument are added. Throughout the… Read More ›
The Federal Reserve’s latest G.19 Consumer Credit Report shows trends in consumer credit, excluding loans secured by real estate, through April 2020. In April, consumer credit decreased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 19.6% from the previous month, with revolving debt1 decreasing by 64.9% and nonrevolving debt2 decreasing by 4.0 percent. Consumer credit totaled $4.1 trillion on a seasonally… Read More ›
In the last analysis of NAHB’s Home Building Geography Index (HBGI), single-family construction was shown to be expanding faster in regions of lower population density. The COVID-19-induced public health crisis has added momentum to this trend. Moreover, multifamily residential construction has been on a similar trajectory of growth that intensified in 2019, regardless of the virus impact. Indeed, over the… Read More ›
The U.S. Department of Labor released the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report for the week ending May 30th. Weekly initial claims fell below 2 million for the first time since the week ending March 14th. Continuing claims, which lags initial jobless claims by one week, rose slightly to nearly 21.5 million in the week ending May 23rd. The data indicate… Read More ›
The latest round of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Application Survey showed a decline in its benchmark Market Composite Index for the week ending on May 29 by 3.9% from the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis. Refinancing activity, fell sharply from the previous week by 8.6%. However, purchase application activity rose by 5.3%. Continuing the trend that… Read More ›
The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to hasten a housing trend already taking place across the nation – residential construction activity that is expanding at a more rapid rate in lower density markets such as smaller cities and rural areas. This conclusion is among the findings of the latest quarterly National Association of Home Builders Home Building Geography Index (HBGI). An… Read More ›
The U.S. Department of Labor released the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report for the week ending May 23rd. Initial claims have declined for the eighth straight week after it hit a record peak of 6.9 million in the week ending March 28th. Continuing claims dropped by 3.86 million in the week ending May 16th, suggesting some unemployed workers are finding… Read More ›