This Week in Real Estate
The Mortgage Bankers Association reported This Week in Real Estate that January ended
with a surge in mortgage applications in response to a 3 basis point decrease
following three consecutive weeks of rate increases. The MBAs refinance index
realized its highest level since March 2020. Below
are a few newsworthy events from the first week of February that influence our business:
* Home Prices Topple
Expectations, Surging at the End of 2020. National
home prices increased 9.2% year over year in December 2020, according to the
latest CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI) Report. Home price growth in 2020
started off at a modest 4.3% rate in the first quarter, but as the pandemic
limited supply throughout 2020, home price growth picked up, ending the year
with an increase of 8.3% for the fourth quarter. CoreLogic analyzes four
individual home-price tiers that are calculated relative to the median national
home sale price. Home price growth accelerated for all four price tiers in 2020
to the highest rates since 2013 for the two middle-price tiers and since 2006
for the high- and low-price tiers. The lowest price tier increased 13% year
over year in December 2020, compared with 11% for the low- to middle-price
tier, 10.4% for the middle- to moderate-price tier, and 9.5% for the high-price
tier.
Full Story…
https://www.corelogic.com/blog/2021/2/home-prices-topple-expectations-surging-at-the-end-of-2020.aspx
* Mortgage
Applications Spike 8 Percent in Late January. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association's
latest Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending
January 29, 2021, U.S. mortgage applications increased 8.1 percent from one
week earlier. The Market
Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 8.1
percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. The Refinance
Index increased 11 percent from the previous week and was 59 percent higher
than the same week one year ago. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 8
percent compared with the previous week and was 16 percent higher than the same
week one year ago. "After increasing for three consecutive weeks, the
30-year fixed mortgage rate dropped 3 basis points to 2.92 percent. The
one-week reversal in the recent upswing in rates drove an increase in both
conventional and government refinance activity, as borrowers continue to lock
in these historically low rates. MBA's refinance index hit its highest level
since March 2020 and jumped 60 percent year-over-year," said Joel Kan,
MBA's Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting.
* Residential
Construction Spending Grew by 11.8% in 2020. Residential
spending, which increased significantly on a percentage basis in the public
sector although the dollar amount remained relatively small, was an aggregate
of $616.169 billion for the year, an 11.8 percent increase from 2019.
Residential spending on behalf of the private sector in December was at an
annualized rate of $691.000 billion, with $365.032 billion accounted for by
single-family construction. Another $91.369 was spent on constructing units in
building with five or more. The months total residential construction was at a
rate that was 3.1 percent higher than in November and 20.7 percent higher
year-over-year. Single family spending was 5.8 percent and 23.5 percent higher
than the two earlier periods. public sector spending on residential
construction rose significantly in 2020 to a total of $8.576 billion. This
is a 32.1 percent change from the $6.493 billion spent in 2019.
Full
Story…
http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/02012021_construction_spending.asp
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