Greenway's Markets in a Minute I A Rebound for the Home Market
Please enjoy this quick update on what happened this week in the housing and financial markets.
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Mortgage rates continue to hit record lows, and mortgage applications point to a remarkable recovery in homebuying. Purchase apps rose 6% last week, only 1.5% lower than a year ago. |
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More than 8% of U.S. mortgages are now in forbearance, equating to roughly 4.1 million borrowers. However, the number of people needing such help is slowing. |
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Initial jobless claims remained high last week as backlogs are being cleared, but they continued their week-too-week decline. More layoffs are expected. |
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Homebuilder confidence showed signs of bouncing back in May, after a record plunge in April. Although still in negative territory, the NAHB Housing Market Index was up 7 points. |
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April existing home sales dropped 17.8% month-to-month and were 17.2% lower than April 2019. That puts the annualized pace at 4.33 million units, the slowest since September 2011. |
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The drop in available home inventory pushed home prices to a new record high. The median price of an existing home sold in April rose 7.4% annually to $286,800. |
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