Tag Archives: Odeta Kushi

HUD and the Census Bureau reported housing starts dipping 9.6% below their revised June estimate, as erratic mortgage rates, supply chain concerns, and high prices mount to create housing affordability challenges.

While single‐family housing starts were down in June, home buyers today are presented with more options, as new-home inventory is accounting for a bigger share of the total housing supply.

Despite housing inventory falling slightly to a 7.7 months’ supply month-over-month, the nation's supply was up 34.5% over last May, with 444,000 units available for sale.

With residential construction continuing to slow, the Fed’s rate hike of last week and its ripple effect on mortgage rates may push housing starts down for months to come.

First American Deputy Chief Economist Odeta Kushi shares some solutions to solving the affordability puzzle. 

Inflationary concerns continue to blanket prospective buyers as new residential sales declined month-over-month in April.

Homebuilder confidence declined for the fifth consecutive month, as the cost of building materials were up by more than 19% year-over-year.

Led by a double-digit gain in multifamily activity, housing permits rose 0.4% from February, and were 6.7% higher year-over-year.

As new home sales experienced a decline in February, the 20.4% rise in building materials year-over-year is being passed on to the consumer and pricing many out of the market.

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have released their new residential construction statistics for February 2022, which found that privately‐owned housing starts in February hit 1,769,000, 6.8% above the revised January estimate of 1,657,000. ...