News in end use

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) is reporting that investment in building construction modestly slowed in May, declining -1.9% to $19.4 billion (CAD). This was the first drop in building construction since April of 2020. Residential construction investment was down -2.7% to $14.8 billion in May, with declines in both single and multifamily construction.

According to Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest monthly CREF Loan Performance Survey, the delinquency rates for mortgages backed by commercial and multifamily properties held steady in June. The MBA developed the survey to better understand the ways the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting commercial mortgage loan performance. The survey reveals that 95.2% of outstanding loan balances were current, unchanged from May.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC), with analysis provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), new single-family starts expanded at an accelerated pace in 2020. Nationally, 993,635 new single-family units were started in 2020.

According to the latest report from Redfin, the Seattle-based, technology-powered real estate brokerage, for the week ending July 4, 2021, the number of newly listed homes for sale surpassed 2019 levels for the first time since the start of the year.

Formed after the closure of the Northern Pulp mill in January 2020, the Forestry Innovation Transition Trust in Nova Scotia announced it will invest $6.1 million (CAD) over four years for the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) to create a new Centre of Forest Innovation at its Truro, N.S. campus.

Fannie Mae on Wednesday (7-7-21) released their Home Purchasing Sentient Index® (HPSI) for June. Overall, the HPSI was little changed, decreasing by -0.3 points to a reading of 79.7. This occurred despite even greater volatility among its underlying components.

Freddie Mac has released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for the week ending July 8, 2021. The PMMS reports that 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.90% with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 2.98%. A year ago, at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.03%.

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 373,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, July 3, 2021. This is an increase of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The 4-week moving average was 394,500, a decrease of 250 from the previous week’s revised average.

A deeper dive into the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) May Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), with a look specifically on the construction sector, reveals that the number of open construction jobs decline in May to 299,000 unfiled positions.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today (7-7-21) reported its Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for May 2021. According to the JOLTS report, as of the last business day in May, the number and rate of job openings was little changed at 9.2 million.