Share Of Women In Construction At An All Time High

For the first time since March,  First American’s  Loan Application Defect Index indicates the nation’s mortgage defect risk increased, but only for purchase mortgages. According to the company, the Defect Index for purchase transactions increased by 2.7% in November compared with October, while the Defect Index for refinance transactions fell by 1.6%. Although it should be noted, that both purchase and refinance defect risk are down from last year. Mark Fleming, First American’s chief economist, said overall defect risk has been declining since March of this year, and November marks a pause to this trend. “After falling since March, the Defect Index for purchase transactions increased 2.7% compared with October, while the Defect Index for refinance transactions fell by 1.6%, its eighth straight month of declining risk,” Fleming said. “The overall Defect Index, which includes both purchase and refinance transactions, remained the same compared with last month, and is 16% lowe

Americans are cashing out home equity by refinancing their mortgages, even if it means they’re paying higher interest rates. Nearly 60% of cash-out refinancings in 2018 came with higher interest rates, the biggest share since before the financial crisis, according to a Wall Street Journal  story  citing mortgage-data firm  Black Knight . “For some homeowners, the trade-off is worth it,” the Journal story said. “While mortgage rates have crept up, they are still lower than what borrowers would pay if they tapped a credit-card or home-equity line of credit.” Boosted by  refis , lenders originated $700 billion in mortgages in the third quarter, the most since before the financial crisis, according to industry research group Inside Mortgage Finance. A big chunk of the cash-out refis was due to debt consolidation – specifically, paying off a home equity line of credit by rolling it into a first-lien mortgage. About $6.1 billion of HELOC debt was extinguished that way in the third q

This year saw a  shortage  of housing inventory among other  shortages  in the construction industry, but it appears homebuilders are beginning to move towards utilizing new technology to address these issues. According to the  National Association of Home Builders , 3D printing and robots have entered the housing construction market, but AI is far less common. In the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index and NAHB Remodeling Market Index, it was revealed that trusses are the most common type of construction technology used. Over 70% of builders and remodelers use roof trusses, and over 50% of builders and remodelers use floor trusses. According to the surveys, 1% of builders and remodelers reported using  3D printed forms . And 0% of both builders and remodelers reported using digital tilt sensors, wearable devices to monitor construction workers, automated bricklaying machines or other robots. With 3D printing, lightweight molds are created, taken to construction sites and fi

The year that’s winding down will be remembered, in the real estate world, for its mortgage rates that persistently and unexpectedly declined. While rates aren’t going to plunge another percentage point – November’s average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 3.7%, compared with 4.87% in the year-ago month, according to  Freddie Mac  data – they’re going to set some new lows,  Fannie Mae  said in a forecast. The average fixed rate probably will be 3.6% in 2020, which would be the lowest annual average ever recorded in Freddie Mac records going back to 1973. It compares with 3.9% in 2019 and 4.5% in 2018, according to Fannie Mae. The current record was set in 2016 when the annual average fell to 3.65%. Mortgage rates are set, ultimately, by bond investors who keep a steely eye on inflation as a gauge of the yields they are willing to take. Rising inflation eats into their returns and leads to higher mortgage rates. In a low-inflation environment, like today, they can still make

While many claim they care about the environment and their impact, just a small share admit they are willing to pay extra for greener features on their homes. A report from the  National Association of Home Builders , for example, found that Millennials desire an environmentally-friendly home, but don’t necessarily want to pay for the features. In fact, 83% of Millennials surveyed said they are concerned about the impact of building a home on the environment, yet only 16% would pay for an environmentally friendly home. That includes a willingness to pay for green features that provide energy efficiency and cost-saving benefits over time. Another 33% said they would like an environment-friendly home, but would not pay more; 34% said they are concerned about the environment, but it’s not a consideration in a home purchase; and 18% reported they are not concerned about the environment. When it comes to  energy efficiency , more Millennials say they are willing to pay upfront if i

If you live in Contra Costa County, you’re far more likely than other Bay Area residents to live in a home you own. About two-thirds of homes in the county are occupied by their owners, the highest home ownership rate in the Bay Area.

Inflation-adjusted GDP increased at an annual rate of 2.1% in the third quarter, according to the third estimate from the  Bureau of Economic Analysis . In the second quarter of the year, GDP grew at a 2% pace. Friday’s GDP estimate is based on more complete source  data than October’s second estimate. With the third estimate for Q3, upward revisions to personal consumption expenditures and nonresidential fixed investment were offset by a downward revision to private inventory investment. The GDP increase also reflects positive contributions from federal government spending, residential investment, exports, and state and local government spending. The acceleration in Q3 reflects upturns in both exports and residential fixed investment. Notably, corporate profits, which account for current production, decreased $4.7 billion in Q3, compared to an increase of $75.8 billion in Q2. Overall, profits decreased by 0.2%  at a quarterly rate in Q3 after rising 3.8% in the previous quart

The nation’s existing-home sales declined 1.7% in November, according to the  National Association of Realtors. Total existing-home sales – completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops – fell to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 5.35 million. However, sales are still 2.7% above November 2018’s rate. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist said, although America’s  economy  is performing well, home sales are bound to be choppy if inventory  levels remain low . “The  new home construction  seems to be coming to the market, but we are still not seeing the amount of construction needed to solve the housing shortage,” Yun said. “It is time for  builders  to be innovative and creative, possibly incorporating more factory-made modules to make houses affordable rather than building homes all on-site.” In November, the median price for an existing home was $271,300, a gain of 5.4% from last year’s rate of $257,400. This marks the 93rd

Los Angeles beat San Francisco in November as the hottest real estate market in the nation’s most populous state, according to a report by the  California Association of Realtors . The median price of a single-family home in the L.A. metro area was $550,000, up 7.4% from a year earlier, and sales gained 3.4%. The median price in the San Francisco Bay area was $925,000, up 2.2%, and sales fell 4.8%, according to the report issued on Wednesday. Looking at the whole state, the median price was $589,770, up 6.4% from a year earlier, the biggest annual gain since July 2018, and sales increased 5.6%, the report said. Low mortgage  rates  are supporting housing demand, even as buyers strain to afford the state’s  pricey markets , according to CAR Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. The average U.S. rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 3.7% in November, more than a percentage point lower than a year ago, according to  Freddie Mac  data. “We’re seeing a more robust market in the se

Pity the poor Millennials as they begin turning 40 in 2020. Their housing luck hasn’t been good. Gen Z-ers, still in their early 20s, will have a much better fate when they enter their peak homebuying years, Zillow said in a report on Monday. Most  Millennials  graduated from college during the Great Recession with a record level of student debt, after parents hit with job losses were forced to pull back tuition support. When the generation born from 1981 to 1996 began getting on its feet a few years later and began looking for homes to buy, it got hit with another problem. Property prices were skyrocketing and the inventory of homes was tightening as  construction , hard-hit during the downturn and still on the sidelines, lagged population growth. There’s also the distaste factor: Millennials saw their parents stressed out as the  value of home s tumbled in the real estate crash. Some were among the 9 million families who lost homes to foreclosure as skyrocketing job losses led t

Mortgage credit availability rose this year and will stay that way in 2020, according to the  Federal Reserve Bank of New York . “Reported rejection rates for credit cards, mortgages, and mortgage refinance applications all declined compared to 2018,” the New York Fed said in its Credit Access  Survey  released on Monday. “Looking ahead, households also generally expect to be more likely to apply for and receive credit over the coming year.” The number of home loan applications increased in 2019, compared to the prior year, the report said, “driven by respondents with a credit score higher than 680.” Mortgages are becoming more available as a strong labor  market  drives late payments to record lows. The national mortgage delinquency rate, measuring overdue payments, fell to 3.39% in October, three basis points from the record low set in May,  Black Knight  said Nov. 25. The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.5% in November, a five-decade low, the  Commerce Department  said in a Dec

Here are the 10 markets that NAR expects to the hottest in the nation in the next three to five years. In alphabetical order, the markets are: Charleston, South Carolina Charlotte, North Carolina Colorado Springs, Colorado Columbus, Ohio Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas Fort Collins, Colorado Las Vegas, Nevada Ogden, Utah Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida

Prediction #1: Bidding wars will rebound thanks to low mortgage rates and a lack of homes for sale Low mortgage rates will continue to strengthen homebuying demand, but due to a lack of  new homes for sale  and  homeowners staying put longer , there will be fewer homes on the market in 2020 than in the past five years. More demand and less supply mean bidding wars will rebound in the first quarter. We expect about one in four offers to face bidding wars in 2020 compared to only  one in 10 in 2019 . This increase in competition will push year-over-year price growth up to 6% in the first half of the year, considerably stronger than the 2% growth seen in the first half of 2019. Supply and demand will become more balanced later in the year as more listings of new and existing homes hit the market, allowing price growth to moderate to 3%. Prediction #2: 30-year fixed mortgage rates will stabilize at 3.8% Throughout 2020, 30-year fixed mortgage rates will remain low, hovering around 3

The Trump administration has reached a deal to scrap tariff hikes on Chinese goods set to take effect on Sunday and slash some existing duties in half, according to CNBC. That’s a positive for the housing market, according to economists. It comes with a caveat, though. A  similar  announcement in October of a “Phase 1” deal was nixed later by China, though not before it caused a U.S. stock market rally and three days of positive headlines. If this latest agreement holds, it would cancel the hikes scheduled for Sunday and cut existing tariffs in half on $360 billion in Chinese products,  according  to CNBC. “Resolving some of these trade disputes would be good for U.S. economic growth and good for the overall housing sector,”  National Association of Home Builders  Chief Economist Robert Dietz told HousingWire in an interview. Tariffs have a direct impact on  housing  by boosting the cost of materials, he said. Many of the ingredients that go into a home, such as drywall, nails

The nation’s  low mortgage rates  were the main driver of  homebuyer demand  throughout 2019, spurring an  uptick in home sales  across the country. But as more homeowners flocked to the market, housing inventory, which has been on a  steady decline  since the housing crisis, fell in housing markets from the east to the west. In November alone,  Realtor.com  indicates  housing supply dropped by 9.5% year over year, falling the most in the starter-home segment where homes priced below $200,000 decreased by a whopping 16.5%. George Ratiu, Realtor.com’s senior economist, said this decline has disproportionally impacted the nation’s Millennial homebuyers who tend to fall in the first-time homebuyer segment. “As Millennials – the largest cohort of buyers in U.S. history – embrace homeownership and take advantage of this year’s unexpectedly low mortgage rates,  demand is outstripping supply , causing inventory to vanish,” Ratiu said. “The housing shortage is felt acutely at the  entry

The  Federal Reserve  left its benchmark rate unchanged on Wednesday and signaled it plans to hold steady through 2020, barring unexpected economic news. All the members of the  Federal Open Market Committee  supported the decision to keep the rate in the 1.5% to 1.75% range, the first unanimous vote since its May meeting. “The committee judges that the current stance of monetary policy is appropriate to support sustained expansion of economic activity, strong labor market conditions, and inflation near the committee’s symmetric 2% objective,’’ the FOMC said in a statement. The Fed’s new  forecasts , released at the end of the meeting, showed a majority of FOMC members expect no change in interest rates through 2020, a year that will see a presidential election. Only four members of the committee, out of 17, predicted a higher rate next year. Their forecast was just one increase. While the Fed doesn’t directly control home-loan rates, its decisions and forecasts influence t

First-time homebuyers are making a comeback this year as they made up 39% of all buyers in the single-family housing market during the third quarter, according to the third quarter First-Time Homebuyer Market Report from  Genworth Financial . First-time homebuyers also made up 55% of all purchase mortgages. This is significantly higher than their historical average, which, since 1994, has averaged 35% of all homebuyers and 46% of new purchase borrowers. In the third quarter this year, 591,000 single-family homes were purchased by first-time homebuyers, an increase of 1% from last year. Home sales to first-time homebuyers increased by 9% from the second quarter to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.14 million units in the third quarter. And 32 states reported more first-time homebuyers this quarter, compared to just 10 states in the second quarter. “The first-time homebuyer market rebounded this quarter and although the rebound was modest compared with the number of first-t

As the year approaches an end, a report from  Redfin  indicates America’s real estate bidding wars are easing as several factors including  tightening supply  continue to depress competition. According to the company, 10% of purchasing offers made on its site faced a bidding war during the month. Not only is this percentage down from last year’s rate of 29%, but it also marks the fifth consecutive month the rate has hovered at a 10-year-low. Even though the number of homes for sale has been falling faster than we normally see this time of year, Daryl Fairweather, Redfin’s chief economist, said buyers just aren’t feeling a sense of urgency right now. “The supply and demand data still says that it’s a  seller’s market , but homebuyers working with Redfin agents in places like Portland and Denver are feeling and acting like they’re in control,” Fairweather said. “Most of the homes that they are seeing are simply not worth getting into a bidding war over, so they’re more than willin

The U.S. unemployment rate fell to another 50-year low, coming in at 3.5% in November as the economy added 266,000 jobs after October’s upwardly revised 156,000 jobs, according to the  Bureau of Labor Statistics .  The number of unemployed persons changed little, with 5.8 million out of work, according to the report. Comparing demographic segments, the jobless rates showed little or no change over the month, coming in for both women and men at 3.2%, whites at 3.2%, Hispanics at 4.2%, teenagers at 12%, Asians at 2.6% and blacks at 5.5%. The average hourly earnings for all employees on private non-farm payrolls rose 3.1% from a year ago, up 7 cents to $23.83, the report said. The change in total non-farm payroll employment in September was revised upward to 193,000 jobs from 180,000. With the revisions to the prior two months, employment gains in September and October combined were 41,000 more than previously reported. The majority of job gains in November can be attributed to

Thanks to  increases in home prices  in 2019, the  Federal Housing Administration  loan limit will increase for nearly all of the country in 2020. According to an announcement from the FHA, the 2020 FHA loan limit for most of the country will be $331,760, an increase of nearly $17,000 over  2019’s loan limit  of $314,827. That loan limit applies to much of the country, with the figure determined as a percentage of the national conforming loan limit for  Fannie Mae  and  Freddie Mac , which is  increasing  in 2020 to $510,400. FHA is required by the National Housing Act, as amended by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, to set single-family forward loan limits at 115% of median house prices, subject to a floor and a ceiling on the limits. FHA calculates forward mortgage limits by Metropolitan Statistical Area and county. FHA’s 2020 minimum national loan limit, or “floor,” of $331,760 is 65% of the national conforming loan limit of $510,400. This floor applies to “low

Construction is strongest in Millennial areas, but growth in these areas has begun to lag, according to a report from the  National Association of Home Builders . The majority of single-family and multifamily housing production in the U.S. is occurring in counties with the greatest concentration of Millennials, NAHB’s report said. However, concerns are beginning to arise as the pace of housing production in these areas lags the rest of the nation, according to NAHB’s Home Building Geography Index. And there have been two consecutive quarters of declines in the second and third quarters this year for single-family construction in Millennial areas. “The HBGI highlights the ongoing challenge of housing supply, particularly for younger households seeking affordable rental housing or attempting to gain a toe-hold on the homeownership ladder,” NAHB Chairman Greg Ugalde said. “While counties that have greater concentrations of Millennials are where most of the single-family and multifa

U.S. home  sales  probably will fall next year as Baby Boomers gridlock the housing market by aging in place, according to a forecast from  realtor.com . Sales of existing homes likely will fall 1.8% to 5.23 million while the  inventory  of available homes reaches historic lows, the forecast said. Home prices will probably rise just 0.8%, the report said. “2020 will prove to be the most challenging year for buyers, not because of what they can afford but rather what they can find,” said George Ratiu, senior economist at realtor.com. Mortgage interest costs probably will continue to remain low in 2020, the forecast said. The average  rate  for a 30-year fixed mortgage probably will be 3.85%, the forecast said. That compares with an average of 3.9% for 2019, according to a  Fannie Mae  forecast. While a recession isn’t likely in 2020, the economy is expected to soften as uncertainty about global trade weighs on growth, Ratiu said. That outlook is going to influence Baby Boomers