Despite the rising mortgage rates witnessed in February, existing home sales continued to improve and climbed to a 12-month high, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). However, low resale inventory and strong demand continued to drive up existing home prices, marking the eighth consecutive month of year-over-year median sales price increases. Recent declines…

The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy committee held the federal funds rate constant at a top target of 5.5% at the conclusion of its March meeting. The Fed will continue to reduce its balance sheet holdings of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities as part of quantitative tightening and balance sheet normalization. Marking a fifth consecutive meeting holding…

Continuing NAHB’s commitment to be at the forefront of research on home buyer preferences, the 2024 edition of What Home Buyers Really Want was recently released at the International Builders’ Show. The primary objective of the study is to provide builders, manufacturers, architects, and the general residential construction industry with a thorough analysis of what…

A lack of existing inventory that continues to drive buyers to new home construction, coupled with strong demand and mortgage rates below last fall’s cycle peak, helped push builder sentiment above a key marker in March. Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes climbed three points to 51 in March, according to…

Over the first month of 2024, the total number of single-family permits issued year-to-date (YTD) nationwide reached 75,906. On a year-over-year (YoY) basis, this is an increase of 43.1% over the January 2023 level of 53,062. Year-to-date ending in January, single-family permits were up in all four regions. The range of permit increase spanned 67.0%…

Inputs to residential construction, goods less food and energy, increased for the fourth consecutive month to a new high, according to the most recent Producer Price Index (PPI) report published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The index for inputs to residential construction, goods less food and energy, represents building materials used in residential…