News in end use

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Forbearance and Call Volume Survey for the week ending July 19th, is reporting that the total number of loans in forbearance declined by 6 basis points from 7.80% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 7.74%.

The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) is reporting that their Pending Homes Sales Index (PHSI) for June increased 16.6%, to a reading of 116.1. Year-over-year, contract signings rose 6.3%.

The most recent U.S. Census Bureau 2020 Housing Vacancy Survey (CPS/HVS) is reporting homeownership gains, particularly of households headed by adults, 35 and younger, increased appreciably in the second quarter of 2020.

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Application Survey, for the week ending 24th July 2020, the Market Composite Index, measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased -0.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.

After a large increase in June, the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index® declined in July. The Index currently is at 92.6 (1985=100), down from 98.3 in June.

A closer examination of the recently released Quarterly Sales by Price and Financing reported by the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that FHA-Backed sales made up 20.4% of new home sales in the second quarter of 2020.

CoreLogic® has released its CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI™) and HPI Forecast™ for May 2020. The index is reporting that home prices rose 4.5% year-over-year, but were down -0.1% from April’s reported 4.6%.

A deeper look into the second quarter of 2020’s National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Housing Trend Report (HTR) reveals that only 23% of prospective buyers can afford at least half of the homes available in the areas they are searching.

According to the June Realtor® Confidence Index Survey, the share of first-time homebuyers who purchased existing homes rose to 35% of total sales.