News in end use

Housing starts in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,238,000, 6.8% below the revised June rate.

The total monthly seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts for all areas in Canada increased 16% in July to 279,509 units, MBA reported.

The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties increased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.97% of all loans outstanding at the end of Q2, MBA reported.

The University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment rose to a reading of 67.8 in August, up from 66.4 in July. This is a month-over-month increase of 2.1% but down 2.3% year-over-year.

The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index showed that builder sentiment in the market for newly built single-family homes fell 2 points to a reading of 39 in August.

Home sales activity posted a 0.7% decline between June and July, CREA reported.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.49%, up from last week when it averaged 6.47%, Freddie Mac reported.

Redfin reported that investors purchased $43 billion worth of homes in Q2—up 13.7% from a year earlier and the biggest gain in two years.

In 2023, 2,520 different multifamily lenders provided a total of $246.2 billion in new mortgages for apartment buildings with five or more units, MBA reported.

The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims was 227,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week’s revised level.