Tag Archives: Housing Market

In the NAHB's Eye on Housing blog, Crowe cited a number of positive housing statistics that indicate that April was a prosperous month for the industry in spite of the U.S. economy contracting at an annualized rate of minus 7 percent in Q1. The lack of economic growth in Q1 did nothing to damper economists' predictions about housing recovery for 2015, however, largely because of strong April numbers.

Revised, employment gains for March and April were a combined 32,000 more than previously reported (March's job gains were revised from 85,000 up to 119,000, and April's were revised down slightly from 223,000 to 221,000). With approximately 3.01 million jobs added in the last year and the job situation seemingly recovered from a disappointing March, the housing market may be reaping the benefits later in the year, according to analysts.

Rood, whose two decades of mortgage industry experience include serving as of Senior Director and Principal of Fannie Mae’s eBusiness Division, told radio host Jim Bohannon that the recent surge in apartment construction was largely due to developers taking advantage of millennials who have aspirations of homeownership, but cannot afford it but want to get out of their parents' houses.

The latest NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index released in mid-May reports that about two-thirds of new and existing homes sold in the first quarter of 2015 were affordable to families that earned $65,800, which is the U.S. median yearly income, according to NAHB

Despite economic growth taking a step backward, the forecast for housing for the rest of the year remains positive, according to Fannie Mae SVP and chief economist Doug Duncan. New home sales increased by 6.8 percent in April up to 517,000 annualized units; the National Association of Realtors' Pending Home Sales Index has risen by 14 percent in the last 12 months; existing home sales are at a nine-year high; and purchase applications recovered at the end of May from a slow first half of the month up near a two-year high.

Yun expects a rebound heading into the summer, following April’s decline in existing-home sales, but the chance of significant gains will depend on an increase in inventory and evidence of moderating price growth now that interest rates have started to rise.

"In this month's MiMi three more states and seven metro areas moved within range of their benchmark level of activity," Keifer said. "However, as we've mentioned before, we're likely to see bouts of affordability shock with mortgage rate swings for the remainder of this year as market participants try to anticipate Fed timing around rising short term interest rates and expectations for global growth wax and wane."

Economists have remained positive but cautious for 2015's outlook despite the Q1 growth they termed as "paltry." They were particularly positive in the area of housing; a substantial increase in housing permits was largely responsible for the April spike in the Conference Board's LEI.

According to CoreLogic, San Jose, California, was the metro area with the second-highest year-over-year home sales growth with 14 percent. San Jose was one of only two of the top 10 markets for highest year-over-year new home sales growth; the other was Portland, Oregon, which was eighth. Atlanta, Georgia, ranked third at 10 percent.

Yesterday, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that existing-home sales were at 5.04 million units, a 3.3 percent decrease from March, though up 6.1 percent from a year ago. Both, Auction.com and Consensus estimates were off for April because they predicted a stronger performance based on data released in March.