News in end use

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC), with analysis provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), reveals that the custom home share decreased to 17.8% of all single-family homes started in 2020. That is the lowest annual custom home share has been since the redesigning of the SOC in 2005.

Zillow Group, Inc., the Seattle-based real estate marketplace company, in their latest Zillow® Market Report revealed that the runaway monthly increases in home values and rents slowed in August. This paves the way, Zillow says, for a strong but more manageable housing market for this coming fall.

The University of Michigan today (Friday 9-17-21) released its preliminary Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI) for September. The Index of Consumer Sentiment increased to a reading of 71.0 in September, up from 70.3 in August — a month-over-month increase +1.0% but -11.7% year-over-year (80.4 in September 2020).

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp (CMHC) reported on Wednesday (9-15-21) that the annual pace of housing starts in Canada in August slowed when compared with July, as the rate of new home construction continued to decline from their highs earlier in the year. According to the CMHC, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 260,239 units in August, down from 270,744 in July.

The Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) reported on Tuesday (9-14-21) that is Construction Backlog Indicator, the results of an ABC member survey, declined significantly to a reading of 7.7 months in August. The reading is down -0.8 months month-over-month (July vs. August) and down 0.3 months year-over-year (August 2020 vs. August 2021).

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) reported today (9-16-21) that the Canadian Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 4.1% on a year-over-year basis in August, up from a 3.7% gain in July. This is the fastest growth rate in the CPI since March 2003.

Freddie Mac has released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for the week ending September 16, 2021. The PMMS reports that 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.86% with an average 0.7 point, down slightly from last week when it averaged 2.88%. A year ago, at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 2.87%.

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 332,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, September 11, 2021. This is an increase of 20,000 from the previous week’s revised level.

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) released today (9-15-21) its early/flash estimates of the Industrial Product Price Index (IPPI) for August. The final version will be released on September 29th. According to the early release, the IPPI decreased -0.3% month-over-month in August.

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Application Survey (WMAS), for the week ending September 10, 2021 (with an adjustment for the Labor Day holiday), the Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume — increased 0.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.