News in end use

The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) is reporting that total existing home sales — which are completed transactions for single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops — in February were -6.6% below January to a seasonally adjusted rate at 6.22 million homes.

Redfin, the Seattle-based technology-powered real estate brokerage company, is reporting that for the 4-week period ending on March 14, 2021, the median home sales price increased 17% year-over-year to $330,250 — an all-time record in this data set, which dates back through 2016.

According to the ADP® February 2021 Canada National Employment Report, which is produced by the ADP Research Institute®, employment in Canada decreased by 108,000 jobs from January to February. The report, which is derived from actual ADP payroll data, measures the change in total nonfarm payroll employment each month on a seasonally adjusted basis.

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 770,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday March 13, 2021 — an increase of 45,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The 4-week moving average was 746,250, a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week’s revised average.

The Conference Board, which was founded in 1916 as a non-partisan, not-for-profit think tank, released today (3-18-22) their February 2021, Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the U.S. According to the release, the LEI which is based on ten separate components increased 0.2% in February, following a 0.5% increase in January and a 0.4% increase in December.

Freddie Mac has released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for the week ending 18th March 2021. The PMMS reports that 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.09% with an average 0.7 point, up from last week when it averaged 3.05%.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) 2021 Priced-Out-Estimates reports that 75.1 million U.S. households are unable to afford a median priced new home and that an additional ~154,000 would be priced out if the price of a home were to go up by $1,000.

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) is reporting the Canadian Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose at a faster pace year-over-year in February (+1.1%) than in January (+1.0%). The increase in gasoline prices (+5.0%) led to consumer price growth in February. Excluding gasoline, the CPI rose 1.0% in February, down from a 1.3% increase in January.

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Application Survey, for the week ending March 12, 2021, the Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume — decreased -2.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased -2% compared with the previous week.

The U.S. Census Bureau has reported that privately‐owned housing starts in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 1,421,000. This is -10.3% below the revised January estimate of 1,584,000 and is -9.3% below the February 2020 rate. Single-family housing starts in February were at a rate of 1,040,000; and this is -8.5% below the revised January figure.