Eye On Housing
The first of many expected Federal Reserve hikes of the short-term federal funds rate was announced today. Combined with future balance sheet runoff, these monetary policy moves will lead to higher mortgage rates in 2022 and 2023 as the Fed attempts to curb elevated inflation. As widely expected by forecasters and markets, the Fed raised the federal funds rate by… Read More ›
In the past month, total mortgage activity, as measured by the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Market Composite Index, underwent a series of weekly declines, but increased in the latest week by 8.5 percent. The latest week’s survey is for the week ending March 4. The latest week’s activity consisted of an 8.6 percent increase in purchasing and an 8.5 percent… Read More ›
In the fourth quarter of 2021, effective interest rates decreased on all four categories of loans tracked in NAHB’s Survey on Acquisition, Development & Construction (AD&C) financing. The average effective rate (based on rate of return to the lender over the assumed life of the loan taking both the contract interest rate and initial fee into account) decreased from 6.50… Read More ›
The Federal Reserve’s latest G.19 Consumer Credit Report states that consumer credit increased 5.9 percent in 2021, with revolving and nonrevolving credit increasing 6.6 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively. During the fourth quarter, consumer credit increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.6 percent, while the December monthly increase was 5.1 percent. The year of 2021 ended with $4.4… Read More ›
At the conclusion of its December policy meeting, the Federal Reserve announced changes to its outlook and projections that move monetary policy further away from the accommodative stance that has supported the economic rebound from the 2020 recession. This pivot toward tighter policy is a direct result of ongoing, elevated inflation data. Today’s announcement makes several changes to both the… Read More ›
In the third quarter of 2021, effective interest rates increased on all four categories of loans tracked in NAHB’s Survey on Acquisition, Development & Construction (AD&C). This result reverses a general downward trend that had prevailed since the third quarter of last year. In the third quarter of 2021, the average effective rate (based on rate of return to the… Read More ›
NAHB analysis of the most recent Quarterly Sales by Price and Financing published by the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that conventional loans financed 75.7% of new home sales in the third quarter of 2021—the largest share since the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008. The share increased 1.7 percentage points over Q2 2021 (revised) and has risen each of… Read More ›
The Federal Reserve has been supporting the housing market during the virus crisis, the 2020 recession, and the subsequent, ongoing recovery via asset-backed purchases (among other tools), including $40 billion a month of mortgage-backed security (MBS) purchases. These MBS purchases have held interest rates lower than they otherwise would have been. Today, the Fed moved closer to announcing a tapering… Read More ›
As tight inventory continued to push up prices, existing home sales fell in August but remain above pre-pandemic levels, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Though the median existing home prices has increased 34% since January 2020, housing demand remains strong thanks to low mortgage rates and buyers are waiting for more inventory. Total existing home sales, including… Read More ›
In the second quarter of 2021, interest rates on three of the four categories of loans tracked in NAHB’s Survey on Acquisition, Development & Construction (AD&C) Financing continued the downward trend that has prevailed since the third quarter of last year. The average effective rate (based on rate of return to the lender over the assumed life of the loan… Read More ›