News in end use

According to Q3 2020 data from the US Census Bureau’s Quarterly Starts and Completion by Purpose and Design report, and with analysis provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), after years of steady decline, new home sizes appear to be finally stabilizing and perhaps even growing.

After hitting a rough patch in Q1 of 2020, confidence in the multifamily housing market continued to grow in Q2 and again in Q3.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the U.S. increased 0.7% in October to a reading of 108.2 (2016 = 100), this following a similar 0.7% increase in September and a 1.6% increase in August.

The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) has reported that total existing-home sales in October, which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 4.3% above September, to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 6.85 million in October.

Freddie Mac has released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for the week ending 12th November 2020. The PMMS shows that 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.72% with an average 0.7 point, down from last week when it averaged 2.84%.

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 742,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday November 14th. An increase of 31,000 from the previous week’s revised level.

A deeper look into the U.S. Census Bureau’s Quarterly Starts and Completion by Purpose and Design, provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), reveal that the number of single-family homes built-for-rent (SFBFR) posted a year-over-year increase for the Q3 of 2020.

The U.S. Census Bureau has reported that privately‐owned housing starts in October were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 1.530,000. This is 4.9% above the revised September estimate of 1,459,000 and is 14.2% above the October 2019 rate.

According to the latest report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) the trend in October housing starts was recorded at 222,734 units, up from September’s 214,372 units. The trend measures a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) of housing starts.

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Application Survey, for the week ending November 13th, 2020, the Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased -0.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.