News in end use

Scheduled to expire on September 30, 2021, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced on Friday (9-24-21) that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (the Enterprise) will continue to offer COVID-19 forbearance to qualifying multifamily property owners, as needed, subject to the tenant protections FHFA has imposed during the pandemic.

Zillow Group Inc., the Seattle-based online real estate marketplace company, reported that real estate experts responding to their latest Zillow® Home Price Expectation Survey expect that desperately needed housing inventory is on the rise and expected to come primarily from sales by existing homeowners, among a host of other sources — the smallest of which is foreclosures.

The NAHB is reporting that the gap between the multifamily and single-family construction sector has been closing since early 2017, and as of June 2021, there are now almost an equal number of units under construction in both sectors. According to the NAHN, as of July there were 690,000 apartments and 691,000 single family homes under construction.

The Conference Board, a non-partisan, not-for-profit think tank founded in 1916, released today (9-23-21) the Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the U.S. in August. According to the report, the LEI for the U.S. increased by 0.9% in August to 117.1 (2016 = 100), following a 0.8% increase in July and a 0.6% increase in June.

Freddie Mac has released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for the week ending September 23, 2021. The PMMS reports that 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.88% with an average 0.7 point, up slightly from last week when it averaged 2.86%. A year ago, at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 2.90%.

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 351,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, September 18, 2021. This is an increase of 16,000 from the previous week’s revised level.

The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) reported that total existing home sales — which are completed transactions for single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops — declined -2.0% from July to a seasonally adjusted rate at 5.88 million homes in August. Year-over-year sales are down -1.5% (5.97 million August 2020).

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Application Survey (WMAS), for the week ending September 17, 2021, the Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume — increased 4.9% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 16% compared with the previous week.

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) reported on Tuesday (9-21-21) that in August new house prices in Canada rose 0.7% month-over-month and are up year-over-year 12.2%. The latest increase continues the series of gains that began in May of 2020.

The U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday (9-21-21) reported that privately‐owned housing starts in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 1,615,000. This is 3.9% above the revised July rate of 1,554,000 and is 17.4% above the August 2020 rate of 1,376,000.