News in end use

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Application Survey for the week ending February 26, 2021, the Market Composite Index — a measure of mortgage loan application volume — increased 0.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.

Smith Leonard’s latest Monthly Furniture Insight survey of residential furniture manufacturers and distributors reported that December sales were 27% higher year-over-year. The 27% increase was higher than November’s 17% increase, which had been the first month in the past 6 months that orders had slowed somewhat.

According to the February ADP® National Employment Report™ nonfarm private sector employment private sector employment increased by 117,000 jobs from January to February. The ADP National Employment Report is produced by the ADP Research Institute® in collaboration with Moody’s Analytics.

Further analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Construction Spending data for January 2021, provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), reveals that total private residential construction spending rose 2.5% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $713 billion, reaching a new record high.

Statistic Canada (StatsCan) is reporting that real gross domestic product (GDP) grew 2.3% in Q4 of 2020, following record fluctuations in the previous two quarters. In 2020, real GDP shrank -5.4%, the steepest annual decline since quarterly data were first recorded in 1961.

Zillow, the Seattle-based online real estate marketplace company, is reporting in a new survey that a large majority (70%) of homeowners say they would be comfortable moving into a new home after widespread COVID-19 vaccine distribution — a significant increase from the 52% in the previous survey.

The latest Mortgage Banker Association’s (MBA) Forbearance and Call Survey reports that the total number of loans now in forbearance increased by 1 basis point from 5.22% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 5.23% as of February 21, 2021.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Home Building Geography Index (HBGI) is reporting that the shift to suburban home building — which was first reported in Q2 2020 — is the result of buyers’ growing preferences to live in lower density, lower cost markets and the results of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, continued through the balance of 2020.

The U.S. Census Bureau has announced that total construction spending during January 2021 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of $1,521.5 billion, 1.70 above the revised Decembre estimate of $1,496.5 billion.

A deeper examination of recently released data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reveals that personal income rose in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of $21.454 billion.