News in end use

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 1,106,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, August 15th.

A closer look, by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) at the U.S. Census Data from the Quarterly Starts and Completion by Purpose and Design report reveals that custom home building outperformed the overall building market during the tumultuous second quarter of 2020.

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest Forbearance and Call Volume Survey reports that that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 23 basis points from 7.44% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 7.21% as of August 9, 2020.

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Application Survey, for the week ending August 14th, 2020, the Market Composite Index decreased -3.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.

The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) is reporting that pent up demand due to the recent pandemic lockdowns sent home sales soaring in July.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) recent National Delinquency Survey the overall delinquency rate for mortgages on one-to-four-unit residential properties soared by nearly 4 percentage points (386 basis points) during the second quarter of 2020, and by June 30 reached 8.22% (seasonally adjusted), the highest in nine years.

Redfin, the Seattle-based real estate brokerage firm is reporting that demand for rural homes, which suddenly started to increase in April, has continued to grow through the month of July

The U.S. Census Bureau has reported that privately‐owned housing starts in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,496,000.

According to the latest National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) \ Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) builder’s confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes increased by six points in August to a reading of 78.