The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is reporting that the Consumer Price Index (CPI), excluding the volatile food and energy components (“core” CPI) was unchanged in October on a seasonally adjusted basis after rising 0.2% in September.
Wood Markets News
Builder Activity Close to Traditional Mid-November Levels
Dealers responding to FEA’s Weekly Order Survey are reporting that their sales are in close alignment with traditional mid-November levels. A small number of dealers did mention that a few projects that had been postponed in Q3 were in the process of beginning to ramp up with materials scheduled to begin shipping to the jobsite early to mid-next week.
Mortgage Rates Push Higher in the Week Ending November 12th, 2020
Freddie Mac has released its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) for the week ending November 12th, 2020. The PMMS shows that 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.84% with an average 0.7 point, up from last week when it averaged 2.78%. A year ago, at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.75%.
Weekly Jobless Claims Continued Their Decline in the Week Ending November 7th, 2020
The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 709,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday November 7th. A decrease of 48,000 from the previous week’s revised level.
Mortgage Delinquencies Decline in Q3 2020
The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties decreased in Q3.
September Construction Market Hiring and Layoffs Data
The construction segment hiring rate slowed modestly in September.
Mortgage Applications Decline -0.5% in Week Ending 6th November 2020
Mortgage loan application volume decreased -0.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.
New Cross Laminated Timber Hotel Opens in Ft. Jackson South Carolina
With the completion of the construction of the first phase of Candlewood Suites at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, Lendlease and IHG Army Hotels has completed the construction of their fourth cross-laminated timber (CLT) hotel.
The Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Drops to 5.67% in Weekending November 1st, 2020
The latest Mortgage Banker Association’s (MBA) Forbearance and Call Survey reports the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 16 basis points from 5.83% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior week to 5.67% as of November 1, 2020.
Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for September 2020
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has posted its Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for September 2020. According to the JOLTS report the number of job openings was little changed from August at 6.4 million, which is a rate of 4.3%, as of the last business day of September.