News in end use

Redfin is reporting that the national median asking rent price in July was up 14% year-over-year to $2,032 per month. Redfin says this is the smallest annual increase since November 2021 and compares with a revised gain of 15% in June and 16% in May of this year.

Statistics Canada reported on Thursday that, according to the Labor Force Survey, unemployment in Canada fell by 54,000 (5.1%) in June. The decline has resulted in a record low unemployment rate of 4.9%.

Redfin is reporting that roughly 63,000 home-purchase agreements fell through nationwide in July, equal to 16.1% of homes that went under contract that month. That is up 15% from one month earlier and 12.5% year-over-year.

The National Association of Realtors® reported on Thursday that total existing home sales (completed transactions for single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops) dropped 5.9% in July from June to a seasonally adjusted rate at 4.81 million homes.

Freddie Mac has released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for the week ending August 18, 2022. The PMMS reports that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.13% with an average 0.8 point, down from last week when it averaged 5.22%.

The Conference Board released today (8-18-22) the Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for July 2022. According to the report, the LEI declined 0.4% in July, falling to a reading of 116.6 (2016=100). The decrease follows a 0.7% decline in June.

The US Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 250,000 Americans (seasonally adjusted) made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, August 13, 2022. This is a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised-lower level of 252,000.

For the week ending August 17, 2022, the Market Composite Index (a measure of mortgage loan application volume) decreased 2.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index declined 3.0%.

According to the latest the Producer Price Index (PPI) report, the price of building materials increased 0.4% (not seasonally adjusted) in July. Prices have surged 35.7% since January of 2020, with 80% of those increases occurring since January of 2021.

The US Census Bureau reported on Tuesday that privately‐owned housing starts in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 1,446,000. This is 9.6% below the revised June estimate of 1,599,000 and is 8.1% below the July 2021 rate of 1,573,000.