News in end use

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) reported today (9-10-11) that employment increased by 90,000 (+0.5%) in August, marking the third consecutive monthly increase. The unemployment rate fell by -0.4% to a reading of 7.1%.

A closer look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) July Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), with analysis provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a look specifically on the construction sector, reveals that the number of open construction jobs declined in July to 321,000 unfilled positions. Overall, hiring in the construction sector remained substantial in July, increasing to a rate of 5.2%.

According to the latest CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI®) Report, national home prices increased 18% year-over-year in July 2021. The July 2021 HPI gain was up from July 2020’s gain of 5.3% and was the highest 12-month growth in the U.S. index since the series started in 1976.

Freddie Mac has released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for the week ending September 9, 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 2.87%. A year ago, at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 2.86%.

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 310,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, September 4, 2021. This is a decrease of 35,000 from the previous week’s revised level, the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020, when it was 256,000.

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Application Survey (WMAS), for the week ending September 3, 2021, the Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume — decreased -1.9% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased -3% compared with the previous week.

The latest Mortgage Banker Association’s (MBA) Forbearance and Call Survey reports that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 2 basis points from 3.25% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week, to 3.23% as of August 29, 2021. According to MBA’s estimate, 1.6 million homeowners are in forbearance plans.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today (9-8-21) reported its Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for July 2021. According to the JOLTS report, as of the last business day in July, the number and rate of job openings was at a series record high of 10.9 million, or +749,000. The job openings rate increased to 6.9%.

According to the latest National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Home Building Geography Index (HBGI), in Q2 of 2021 residential construction continued its shift towards the suburbs and lower-cost markets, and this trend is particularly evident within the multifamily sector.

According to the National Association of Home Builder’s analysis of the latest Survey of Construction (SOC) data, which comes from interviews of builders and owners of selected new houses, the median square foot price in a new custom single-family detached (SFD) homes started in 2020 increased 8%. Excluding ‘soaring’ improved lot values, the average SFD increased 4%.