For most people the housing question is either to rent or buy. Buying is not for everyone, however. It has material transactions costs, typically requires a down payment, pre-requisite for relatively good credit and an income net of existing debt service to pay the monthly principle and interest along with property taxes, insurance, homeowner or …Read more
Interest rates make up part of the throttle linkage for residential lending. Shown in the table is the latest forecast for 30-year conventional mortgage rates as reported by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Bankers Association. None see residential mortgage rates exceeding 4.6 percent between now and 2021 on an annualized basis. The 30-year …Read more
Interest rates rose each and every week in the past four weeks according to the Primary Mortgage Market Survey from Freddie Mac, with the 30-year, fixed-rate conventional loan hitting 4.20 percent the week ending April 25, 2019. Rates, however, were still 38 basis points less than 1 year ago when the conventional loan was at …Read more
One year ago the expectation was for rising interest rates and plunging refinance lending volumes. Yet as of March 28, 2019, the 30-year conventional mortgage interest rate fell 22 basis points from the prior week to 4.06 percent according to Freddie Mac’s Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey. The drop was the largest one-week decline seen …Read more
Existing home sales continue a downward decent. Year-to-date sales are down 2.12 percent. Though sales are down, rising prices are compensating lending with the median up 4.9 percent compared to the same period a year ago (based on 12-month moving averages of the monthly median price). As a result, total residential purchase lending (including new …Read more
Existing home sales continue to mimic a slow-leaking tire this year, as sales have fallen short in four of the eight months thus far in 2018 versus a year ago. Year-to-date sales are down 1.23 percent. Though sales are down, rising prices are compensating lending with the median up 5.1 percent compared to the same …Read more
New single family residential (SFR) home sales of 631,000 on seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) were up 2.2 percent versus a year ago but down 5.3 percent sequentially from May. Year-to-date new home sales (not seasonally adjusted) of 345,000 units were up 5.8 percent compared to the same period a year ago. There were …Read more
Existing home sale slipped 2.2 percent in June 2018 versus a year ago to 5.38 million sales on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis (SAAR) according to National Association of Realtors® (NAR). Sales dipped 0.6 percent sequentially from May on a SAAR. From an unadjusted basis, housing sales in the first six months totaled 2.631 million, …Read more
New single family residential (SFR) home sales of 689,000 on seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) were up 14.1 percent versus a year ago and 6.7 percent sequentially from April. Other than the 712,000 SAAR rate posted in November 2017, this is the greatest level seen since October 2007. Year-to-date new home sales are up 8.8 …Read more
We economists have a secret rule when making forecasts on interest rates: give a rate or give a date, but never give both at the same time because you are going to be wrong. Fortunately, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the MBA update their quarterly and annual forecasts monthly for residential lending volumes – …Read more