News in end use

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) is reporting that the total value of building permits in Canada decreased 3.9% to $9.9 billion (CAD) in July. All provinces except British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador posted lower values, with the majority of the national decline reported in Alberta (-23.4%). Building permits fell -3.1% in the residential sector and -5.6% in the non-residential sector.

Freddie Mac has released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for the week ending September 2, 2021. The PMMS reports that 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.87% with an average 0.6 point — unchanged from last week. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 2.93%.

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 340,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, August 28, 2021. This is a decrease of 14,000 from the previous week’s revised level and the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020, when it was 256,000.

According to the latest Job Cut Report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CG&C) Inc., a global outplacement and business and executive coaching firm, U.S. based employers announced 15,723 job cuts in August, down -17% from the 18,942 cuts announced in July. August 2021’s total is the lowest since in June 1997, when 15,091 job cuts were announced.

The U.S. Census Bureau has announced that total construction spending during July 2021 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of $1,568.8 billion, 0.3% above the revised June estimate of $1,563.4 billion. The July figure is 9.0% above the July 2020 estimate of $1,439.6 billion.

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Application Survey (WMAS), for the week ending August 27, 2021, the Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased -2.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased -3% compared with the previous week.

According to the August ADP® National Employment Report™, nonfarm private sector employment increased by 374,000 jobs from July to August. The report, which is derived from ADP’s actual payroll data, measures the change in total nonfarm private employment each month on a seasonally adjusted basis.

According to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI®), U.S. house prices increased 1.6% month-over-month in June. House prices increased 17.4% from June 2020 to June 2021. Compared to Q1 of 2021, house prices were up 4.9%.

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) reported on Tuesday (8-31-21) that a substantial decline in home resale activity and exports pushed the real gross domestic product (GDP) in Canada down -0.3% in Q2 2021. This marks the end of three consecutive quarterly increases that followed the sharp decline of -11.3% caused by pandemic-related business shutdowns and travel restriction in Q2 of 2020.

According to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, which covers all nine U.S. Census divisions, reported today (8-31-21) that home prices experienced a 18.6% annual gain in June 2021, up from 16.8% in May.