News in end use

On Tuesday (7-27-21) the U.S. Census Bureau released the results of Bureau’s Q2 2021 Housing Vacancy Survey. According to the survey, the national vacancy rates in Q2 of 2021 was 6.2% for rental housing and 0.9% for homeowner housing. The rental vacancy rate was 0.5% points higher than the rate in Q2 2020 (5.7%) and -0.6% points lower than the rate in Q1 2021 (6.8%).

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Application Survey, for the week ending July 23, 2021, the Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 5.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 6% compared with the previous week.

According to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, which covers all nine U.S. Census divisions, home prices experienced a 16.6% annual gain in May 2021, up from 14.8% in April and 13.3% in March.

On Monday, July 26, 2021, Freddie Mac Multifamily, the nation’s multifamily housing finance leader, released its Multifamily Midyear Outlook (MMO). The MMO reports that demand for multifamily housing is now ahead of pre-pandemic levels. As a result, the MMO is projecting higher rents, falling vacancies and a record-setting originations market in the remainder of 2021.

According to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI®), U.S. house prices increased 1.7% in May, up from April 2021’s unrevised 1.6% increase. House prices increased 18.0% from May 2020 to May 2021.

The Conference Board — a non-partisan, not-for-profit think tank founded in 1916 — released today (7-27-21) their Consumer Confidence Index® (CCI) for July 2021. The CCI was little changed in July, following five consecutive monthly gains. The Index now stands at 129.1 (1985=100), up slightly from June’s 128.9 reading.

The latest Mortgage Banker Association’s (MBA) Forbearance and Call Survey reports that the total number of loans now in forbearance fell by 2 basis points from 3.50% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 3.48% as of July 18, 2021. According to MBA’s estimate, 1.74 million homeowners are in forbearance plans.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported that new residential single-family home sales for June 2021 were at a SAAR of 676,000, according to estimates. This is -6.6% below the revised May rate of 724,000 and is -19.4% below the June 2020 estimate of 839,000.

The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University (JCHS) has just released their 40-page State of the Nation’s Housing report for 2021. The report examines a year’s worth of data, trends and issues that are impacting the housing industry. This includes housing policy, market trends, household growth and composition, homeownership, affordability issues, rental markets, and more.

In its latest report, Redfin, the Seattle-based technology-powered real estate broker, is reporting that the typical condo in the U.S. sold above its asking price in June, just the second time since at least 2012. The first time was in the month of May, and is signaling renewed homebuyer competition for condos after a pandemic-fuel slump. Nationwide, the typical condo sold for 0.7% above its asking price in June, following a premium of 0.4% in May.