News in end use

Today (3-28-22), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported State Employment and Unemployment rates for February 2022. According to the BLS, nonfarm payroll employment in February 2022 increased in 27 states and was essentially unchanged in 23 states and the District of Columbia.

The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) reported on Friday (3-25-22) that their Pending Homes Sales Index declined -4.1% in February from January to a reading of 104.9. This marks the fourth consecutive month of declines. Contract signings were down in 3 out of 4 regions, with only the Northeast posting a gain.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has developed a new tool which measures how new monthly mortgage payments vary across time—relative to income—using data from MBA’s Weekly Application Survey (WAS). The new index is called the Purchase Applications Payment Index (PAPI).

The University of Michigan today (Friday 3-25-22) released its final Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI) for March. The CSI declined to a reading of 59.4 in March, down from 62.8 in February. This is a month-over-month decrease of -5.4% and down -30.0% year-over-year (84.9 in March 2021).

Freddie Mac has released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for the week ending March 24, 2022. The PMMS reports that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 4.42% with an average 0.8 point, up from last week when it averaged 4.16%. A year ago, at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.17%.

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 187,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, March 19, 2022. This is a decrease of 28,000 from the previous week’s revised level and the lowest level of initial claims since September 6, 1969.

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) reported today (3-24-22) that approximately 633,000 Canadians received regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits in January, little changed from December 2021. The January EI statistics reflect labor market conditions during the week of January 9th to 15th, 2022.

New residential single-family home sales for February 2022 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 772,000, according to estimates. This is -2.0% below the revised January rate of 788,000 and is -6.2% below the February 2021 estimate of 823,000.

Freddie Mac is reporting that its Multifamily Apartment Investment Market Index® declined by -4.8% in Q4 2021 and is down -2.4% when compared to Q4 2020. Record multifamily price appreciation, which saw its largest single-quarter growth in the history of the index, and rising mortgage rates more than offset unprecedented growth in net operating incomes.

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Application Survey (WMAS), for the week ending March 18, 2022, the Market Composite Index (a measure of mortgage loan application volume) declined -8.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.