Rapid Reaction: January Existing Home Sales
January existing home sales data showed sales rising 3.3 percent from December, to 5.69 million (SAAR), the strongest month since February 2007 and the fourth month in the past five in which existing sales have outperformed expectations.
January Home Sales Forecast: Seasonal Adjustment Disorder
Tight inventory will continue to weigh on existing home sales, according to our January home sales forecast, while new home sales should rebound from a slow December. Looking farther ahead, shifting behaviors among home sellers, buyers and builders make it trickier to read definitive trends in seasonally-adjusted home sales data.
Q4 2016 Housing Affordability: Accelerating Home Values, Rising Rates Cause Rapid Deterioration
Rising mortgage interest rates and continued home value growth helped make mortgages less affordable by the end of 2016 than they’ve been in half a decade. And while mortgages remain “affordable” relative to historic norms, as growth in housing costs continues to outpace growth in wages, affordability should be expected to continue to rapidly deteriorate.
Experts: 2017 Looks to be the Year in Which Rising Mortgage Rates Finally Impact Home Value Growth
For years, falling interest rates have been a boon to the U.S. housing market, keeping monthly mortgage payments low for first-time buyers and move-up buyers alike, even as home values rose. But in 2017, rising mortgage interest rates will have the opposite effect and are set to have a larger impact than any other housing trend this year, according to the Q1 2017 Zillow Home Price Expectations survey (ZHPE).
Q4 2016 Homeownership Rate: Western Home Buyers Help 2016 End on a High Note
After reaching its lowest point in decades mid-way through 2016, the U.S. homeownership rate registered two straight quarterly gains and finished the year at 63.7 percent, according to U.S. Census Bureau.
Rapid Reaction: January Jobs Report
The U.S. economy added 227,000 jobs in January, and the unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.8 percent as more people entered the labor force, according to the January jobs report published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
An expected slowdown in the pace of home value growth in a number of pricey, fast-moving markets means it may take longer going forward to break even financially when buying a home in those areas compared to renting it.
December Case-Shiller Forecast: Monthly Growth Expected to Cool, Annual Acceleration to Continue
Seasonally adjusted monthly growth in the S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller home price indices is expected to cool off from its currently torrid pace in December, while annual growth continues to accelerate, according to Zillow’s December Case-Shiller forecast.
November Case-Shiller: Defying Expectations, Home Price Growth Continues to Speed Up
National home price growth accelerated in November, exceeding expectations, as robust home buyer demand and inadequate supply of homes for sale continued to drive the market up, according to the November S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller indices.
U.S. real Gross Domestic Product rose 1.9 percent in Q4 2016, according to advance estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, down from 3.5 percent growth recorded in Q3.
