The Inventory Crisis: No End in Sight (December 2017 Market Report)
For-sale U.S. inventory is down 10 percent since last December, and has been falling on an annual basis for the past 35 months. Don't expect that to change any time soon.
The Inventory Crisis: No End in Sight (December 2017 Market Report)
For-sale U.S. inventory is down 10 percent since last December, and has been falling on an annual basis for the past 35 months. Don't expect that to change any time soon.
Mortgage Rates Steady, But Tax Reform Could Mean Higher Rates Ahead
Absent spending cuts, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act – enacted in December – is likely to boost federal government borrowing, meaning that mortgage borrowers will increasingly be competing with Uncle Sam for long-term loans at the same time more investors are willing to take a risk on overseas investments, which could mean less money for U.S. markets, including bonds. Together, these forces should push up interest rates over the coming months.
Mortgage Rates Jump After Sleepy Holiday Season
The prospect of weakening international demand to buy U.S. debt, at the same time as Uncle Sam may need to begin selling more debt to make ends meet, likely helped push mortgage interest rates to their highest point in months early this week.
Mortgage Rates Quiet Over New Year’s Holiday
Friday’s December Jobs Report will be another opportunity for markets to assess the state of the U.S. labor market. If the data come in as expected, they should show a strong job market at the end of 2017.
Mortgage Rates Ending 2017 Slightly Below 2016
Despite three rate hikes by the Federal Reserve over the past year (four if one counts the last 13 months), the standard 30-year fixed mortgage rate ends 2017 about 20 basis points below where it stood at the end of 2016. It is difficult to imagine this continuing much into 2018.
Case-Shiller October Results and November Forecast: Still Defying Gravity
The housing market’s resistance to headwinds is a testament to the enduring value Americans place on homeownership. The Case-Shiller National Index for October climbed 6.2 percent year-over-year. Seattle, Las Vegas and San Diego continued to post the strongest annual gains in its 20-City Composite Index, with increases of 12.7 percent, 10.2 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively.
Rapid Reaction: November New Home Sales
2017 was OK for new home sales, but there’s no question it could have been a lot better and that more can and needs to be done by builders to address the ongoing inventory crunch the market has been enduring for the past several years.
Rent Growth Catches Up to Income Gains After Slowdown (November 2017 Market Report)
For the almost two years leading up to and including May 2016, rents grew faster than incomes, at times more than three times as fast. Then incomes outpaced rents for more than a year. Now rent growth is catching back up.
Mortgage Rates Bounce on Strong Home Sales News
Markets reacted to existing home sales numbers that were much stronger than expected in November, further evidence that the U.S. economy is on strong footing.
November Existing Home Sales: Sales Surge to 11-Year High
There are 376,000 fewer single-family homes for sale in the United States compared to June 1982, but 35 million more American households – revealing the depth of the inventory crisis facing today’s home shoppers.
