According to data from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC), the custom home share decreased to 17.8 percent of all single-family homes started in 2020—the lowest the annual custom home share has been since the 2005 re-design of the SOC.  The custom home market consists of contractor-built and owner-built houses—homes built one at a time for owner occupancy on… Read More ›

The last four weeks’ mortgage purchasing and refinancing activities, as reflected in the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) latest weekly application surveys, shows a general withdrawal of refinancing and a very slight increase in purchasing from the prior month. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate hovered 3 basis points above 3 percent, consistently, for the last three weeks. In the latest week,… Read More ›

In August, consumer prices increased at its slowest pace since February 2021. Prices for several travel-related categories declined in August, as the delta variant spreads. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 0.3% in August on a seasonally adjusted basis, following an increase of 0.5% in July. Excluding the volatile food and… Read More ›