News in end use

On Thursday (2-24-22), the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced that new residential single-family home sales for January 2022 were at a SAAR of 801,000, according to estimates. This is -4.5% below the revised December rate of 839,000.

According to the latest results from the National Association of Home Builder’s (NAHB) Multifamily Market Survey (MMS), in Q4 of 2021, confidence in the market for new multifamily housing improved. The Multifamily Production Index increased 1 point to a reading of 54 from Q3. The Multifamily Occupancy Index declined six points to a reading of 69.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released today (2-24-22) its “second estimate” of real gross domestic product (GDP) for Q4 2021. BEA reports GDP increased at an annual rate of 7.0%. In Q3 2021, the real GDP increased 2.3%.

Freddie Mac has released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for the week ending February 24, 2022. The PMMS reports that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.89% with an average 0.8 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.92%. A year ago, at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 2.97%.

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 232,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, February 19, 2022. This is a decrease of 17,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The 4-week moving average was 236,250.

A closer look at the U.S. Census Bureau’s Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design data, with further analysis provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), reveals that the market share of rental units of multifamily construction starts increased to 94.2% during Q4 2021. In comparison, the historical low was set during Q3 2005.

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Application Survey (WMAS), for the week ending February 18, 2022, the Market Composite Index (a measure of mortgage loan application volume) decreased -13.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.

Redfin, the Seattle-based, technology-powered nationwide real estate firm, is reporting that 70% of home offers written up by their agents in January (seasonally adjusted) were involved in a bidding war. That figure is up from 67.7% in December and from 61% in January 2021. In fact, it is the highest share since at least April 2020.

According to the new monthly Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Loan Monitoring Survey (LMS), the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by -11 basis points from 1.41% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior month to 1.30% as of January 31, 2022. The MBA estimates that 650,000 homeowners remain in forbearance plans.

According to Q4 2021 data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design, and additional analysis provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), median single-family square foot floor area increased to 2,338 square feet.