News in end use

Freddie Mac has released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ending August 25, 2022. The PMMS reports that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.55% with an average 0.8 point, up from last week when it averaged 5.13%.

The US Department of Labor is reporting that, seasonally adjusted, an additional 243,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, August 20, 2022. This is a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised lower level of 245,000.

The National Association of Realtors® reported on Wednesday their Pending Homes Sales Index declined 1.0% in July from June to a reading of 89.8. The PHSI has now declined in eight times in the past nine months. Year-over-year contract signings have declined 19.9%.

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Application Survey, for the week ending August 19, 2022, the Market Composite Index (a measure of mortgage loan application volume) decreased 1.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.

According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data, with further analysis provided by the Associated Builders and Contractors, the construction unemployment rate hovered below 2% in June in 10 states but was as high as 6.5% in New Mexico.

On Tuesday, the US Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced that new residential single-family home sales for July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 511,000 units, according to estimates. This is 12.6% below the revised June rate of 585,000.

According to the latest quarterly US Census data, the number of multifamily, for-rent housing starts soared during Q2 2022. At 142,000 units started, Q2 was the largest quarter of rental multifamily construction since Q2 1986, or 36-years ago.

The Mortgage Bankers Association announced on Monday the results of its Builder Application Survey (BAS) for July 2022. According to the BAS, mortgage applications in July for new home purchases declined 16.1% year-over-year. Month-over-month applications declined by 7%.

Redfin reported today that their home sales have dropped 19.3% year-over-year in July. They are now at their lowest level since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when the housing market was close to a standstill. This is the largest annual decline in US home sales in more than a year.

Fannie Mae (FM) on Monday updated their projection for real GDP in 2022. FM now projects that GDP will be flat at 0.0% growth on a Q4/Q4 basis. According to FM, the latest GDP reading showed an expected decline in Q2, but recent data point to a return to a modest growth in Q3.