New Home Sales Weaken in August on Higher Mortgage Rates

By Housing
Elevated mortgage rates and challenging affordability conditions pushed new home sales down to their weakest rate since March. Sales weakened in August with average mortgage rates above 7%. While some builders were able to offset that effect via mortgage rate buydowns, rates moved higher this month, suggesting the pace of new home sales will weaken further for September. Sales of… Read More ›

New Homes Same Size but Higher Priced if Age-Restricted

By Housing
Of the roughly 1,005,000 single-family and 547,000 multifamily homes started in 2022, 59,000 (28,000 single-family and 31,000 multifamily) were built in age-restricted communities, according to NAHB tabulation of data from the Survey of Construction (SOC, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and partially funded by HUD).  A residential community can be legally age-restricted, provided it conforms the one of the… Read More ›

High Mortgage Rates Continue to Weaken Builder Confidence

By Housing
Persistently high mortgage rates above 7% continue to erode builder confidence, as sentiment levels have dropped below the key break-even measure of 50 for the first time in five months. Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes in September fell five points to 45, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index… Read More ›

Single-Family Permits Decline in July 2023

By Housing
Over the first seven months of 2023, the total number of single-family permits issued year-to-date (YTD) nationwide reached 527,158. On a year-over-year (YoY) basis, this is 18.4% below the July 2022 level of 645,877. Year-to-date ending in July, single-family permits declined in all four regions. The Northeast posted the lowest decline of 12.1%, while the West region reported the steepest… Read More ›

Building Materials Prices Remain Stable but Diesel Skyrockets 40% in August

By Housing
According to the latest Producer Price Index report, the price level of inputs to residential construction less energy (i.e., building materials) ticked up 0.1% in August (not seasonally adjusted).  Prices have also increased 0.2% over the past 12 months as year-over-year price growth has slowed from 4.9% in January 2023 and 14.7% in August 2022. The 12-month increase is the smallest… Read More ›