News in end use

Quarterly U.S. Census Bureau data, with analysis provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), reveals that the market share of rental units of multifamily construction starts remained elevated at a reading of 95.2% during Q2 of 2021.

The latest Mortgage Banker Association’s (MBA) Forbearance and Call Survey reports that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 1 basis point from 3.26% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 3.25% as of August 15, 2021. According to MBA’s estimate, 1.6 million homeowners are in forbearance plans.

Zillow®, the Seattle-based, online real estate marketplace company, revealed in their latest housing market report that a strong and widespread recovery of rents has pushed prices beyond where they would have been had the COVID-19 pandemic never have occurred. Nationally, typical monthly rents rose to $1,843 in July, surpassing June’s record appreciation and rising 9.2%, or $156, above July 2020.

On Monday, 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, increased 2.0% from June to a seasonally adjusted rate at 5.99 million homes in July. This marks the second consecutive month of increases. Year-over-year sales are up 1.5% (5.90 million July 2020).

A closer look at the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics nationwide total nonfarm payroll for July, with a specific focus on construction employment and analysis provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), reveals that across the 48 states which reported construction sector jobs data — which includes both residential as well as non-residential construction — 29 states reported an increase in July compared to June, while 17 states lost construction sector jobs.

Results of the U.S. Census Bureau Data from the Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design Survey, with analysis provided by the National Association of Home Builders, indicated that custom home building (those are homes not intended for sale) posted the second-best quarter since the Great Recession during the spring of 2021.

Redfin, the Seattle-based technology-powered real estate brokerage, is reporting that in July the median price of a home sold was up nearly 20% year-over-year to a new all-time record high of $385,000. July was the 12th consecutive month of double-digit price gains, which is significant because a year ago the housing market was already in a strong growth phase, after pausing briefly at the onset of the pandemic.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) National Delinquency Survey (NDS) for Q2 of 2021, the delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties decreased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.47% of all loans outstanding. The delinquency rate was down 91 basis points from the Q1 of 2021 and down 275 basis points from one year ago.

According to the results released by the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Multifamily Market Survey (MMS), confidence in the market for new multifamily housing decreased in Q2 of 2021. The Multifamily Production Index (MPI), which was generated from the survey dropped 3-points to a reading of 48 compared to the previous quarter.

The Conference Board, which was founded in 1916 as a non-partisan, not-for-profit think tank, released today (8-19-21) their July 2021 Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the U.S. According to the release, the LEI (which is based on ten separate components) increased by 0.9% in July to 116.0 (2016 = 100), following a 0.5% increase in June and a 1.2% increase in May.