Recent trends in commercial real estate and commercial and industrial loans continued in a status-quo fashion in the second quarter of 2024, according to the latest Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey results released last week by the Federal Reserve. Standards for commercial real estate continue to ... READ MORE >
Real estate
Jobless claims ease as housing starts drop
Initial jobless claims dropped by 5,000 last week to 238,000 yet remained elevated near a 10-month high. For now, the spike in new claims in the previous weeks looks a lot more like a seasonal issue than a deterioration in labor market conditions. In contrast, housing starts fell in May to the lowest ... READ MORE >
U.S. new home sales miss forecasts amid rising mortgage rates
New home sales fell below estimates in April as mortgage rates surged to above 7%. The data, released by the Census Bureau on Thursday, pointed to a disappointing month for housing sales, following the drop in April’s existing home sales released on Wednesday. The rebound in inflation in the first ... READ MORE >
Soft housing and manufacturing data fuels prospect of rate cut
Economic data on housing, manufacturing and jobs released on Thursday pointed to softer-than-expected economic activity in the second quarter. Most notably was April’s data on housing starts and permits, which not only came in below estimates, but prior readings were also revised down. Rising mortgage ... READ MORE >
Senior Loan Officer Survey: Progress halts as inflation rebounds in Q1
Progress toward normalization in lending practices generally halted in the first quarter as the Federal Reserve turned more hawkish amid the rebound in inflation, according to data in a Fed report released on Monday. The Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices showed that demand ... READ MORE >
Existing home sales plunge amid stable jobless claims
March proved challenging for the housing market as sales of existing homes plummeted by 4.3%, marking the steepest drop since November 2022, according to the National Association of Realtors on Thursday. This decline mirrors earlier setbacks in housing starts and permits. A significant uptick in ... READ MORE >
Industrial production rebounds as housing starts plunge
Tuesday's mixed data on housing and industrial production shows how both sectors remained on a bumpy path as a result of elevated interest rates. Housing starts dropped by 14.7% to 1.32 million on an annualized rate, the lowest level since last August, while permits, a proxy for future projects, also ... READ MORE >
Existing home sales exceed forecasts as prices jump
Existing home sales came in much stronger than expected to post the biggest monthly increase in a year, the National Association of Realtors reported on Thursday. There were 4.38 million existing homes sold in February, up by 9.5% from a month ago. Given that February's increase was the third in nine ... READ MORE >
Housing starts and permits beat forecasts as completions reach 17-year high
Housing starts and permits rebounded sharply in February after unfavorable weather slowed projects across the country in January. Housing starts rose by 10.7% in February, while permits increased by 1.9%, according to data released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday. The increases exceeded ... READ MORE >
New home sales grew more slowly in January amid elevated mortgage rates
Sales of new homes grew by 1.5% in January, much slower than the 7.2% increase in December, most likely because of elevated mortgage rates. January's sales were also lower than estimated while December's increase was revised down from the 8% increase reported earlier by the Census Bureau. Slower sales ... READ MORE >