News in end use

According to Fannie Mae’s Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) Group, expectations for a full-year 2021 real GDP growth are at 7.0% — little changed from their previous outlook. However, meaningful compositional and temporal shifts are now projected for the underlaying sources of economic growth.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) / Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) is reporting that builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes declined 1-points to a reading of 80 in July. This is its lowest level since August of 2020.

On Monday, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell 11 basis points to 1.189% (its lowest level in five months) at around 4:00 p.m. ET. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond slid 11 basis points to 1.82%.

According to Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI), which analyzes data from the Ellie Mae’s AllRegs® Market Clarity® business information tool, mortgage credit availability decreased in June. The MCAI fell by -8.5% to 118.8 in June.

Data released on Thursday (7-15-21) by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) reports that home sales have fallen for three consecutive months, after setting an all-time record high in March 2021. The price of the average Canadian home that sold in June was $679,000, an increase of 25% in the past year.

The University of Michigan today (Friday 7-16-21) released its preliminary Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI) for July. Concerns about rising prices has led to a sharp drop in buying conditions for ‘big-ticket’ items and resulted in the decline. The CSI fell to a five-month low to a reading of 80.8 from 85.5 in June. Consumers expect inflation to rise 4.8% over the next year, the highest since August 2008.

Data released today (7-15-21) by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) reports that Canadian national home sale decreased -8.4% between May and June 2021. This marks the third straight monthly decline since activity hit an all-time record in March 2021. While sales are now down a cumulative -25% from their peak, and below every other month in the last year, June transactions still managed to set a record for that month.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) today (7-15-21) released their Remodeling Market Index (RMI) for Q2 2021. The RMI posted a reading of 87, up 14 points from Q2 of 2020 and a sign of remodelers increasing confidence in their markets, for all size projects.

Freddie Mac has released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for the week ending July 15, 2021. The PMMS reports that 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.88% with an average 0.7 point, down from last week when it averaged 2.90%. A year ago, at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 2.98%.

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 360,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, July 10, 2021 — a decrease of 26,000 from the previous week’s revised level and the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020.