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Housing Market News for the Week of September 24, 2021

Get the Latest Local Housing Market Data from Long and Foster's Market Conditions Report Philadelphia Region Report Atlantic County, NJ Report Burlington County, NJ Report Cape May County NJ Report Ocean County, NJ Report August Housing Starts Better Than Expected Housing starts continue to rise despite material and labor shortages U.S. homebuilders started construction on 1.615 million homes in August, up 3.9% from July 2021 and 17.4% higher than a year ago, according to a new report by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Across the country, 1.728 million building permits were pulled, which is 6% above the revised rate from a month prior and 13.5% higher than the August 2020 rate. Additionally, 1.33 million homes were completed, a decrease of 4.5% from July 2021, but this is still 9.4% higher than a year prior. Read more from Housing Wire. Refis Stubbornly Make a Bit of a Comeback The refi index increased by 7%, pushed by an increase in FHA and VA applications The week following Labor Day saw a flurry of mortgage loan application activity, with volume jumping by 4.9% for the seven days ending Sept. 17, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Refis were on the front foot again. The increase in application activity is quite different from the MBA’s survey published in early September, which saw application volume decline by 1.9%, dragged down in part by low refi activity and unexpectedly low purchase volume. Read more from Housing Wire. Vacation Home Sales Defy Housing Market Slowdown The vacation-home market has boomed over the past year and is not likely to slow any time soon, even as the rest of the housing market starts to cool, Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS®, told The Escape Home, a newsletter for second-home owners. Even as companies bring employees back to the office, vacation homes will remain in demand, Yun said. Part of vacation homes’ rise in popularity has been attributed to the growth in remote work. Read more from NAR's Realtor Magazine. Underwater Homeowners Effectively Bailed-Out By Equity Surge Homeowner equity grew $2.9 trillion nationwide from the second quarter of 2020 to the same quarter this year. CoreLogic's Homeowner Equity Report shows U.S. homeowners who have mortgages (which account for roughly 63 percent of all residential properties) saw their equity increase by 29.3 percent over that period, an average borrower gain of $51,500.   With over 1.5 million homeowners in forbearance and 5 million consumers unemployed, current equity figures have added import. A recent CoreLogic survey found 59 percent of respondents feel extremely confident in their ability to keep current on their mortgage payments in the coming year. Read more from Mortgage News Daily. What Couples Fight Over Most When Home Shopping Home buying is emotional and doing it with a significant other can be stressful. Couples may not always see eye-to-eye. A new survey from LendingHome, a lender to real estate investors, found that couples are most likely to disagree on these four items when purchasing a home together: The price: 53% The location: 29% The size or style of the home: 18% The condition: 29% said their partner wanted a new home, while they wanted a fixer-upper Read more from NAR's Realtor Magazine. Choices for 2022 Color of the Year: Green Is Gold Another green hue has been selected as the hottest color for the new year. Sherwin-Williams announced its 2022 color of the year: evergreen fog, an earthy gray-green tone. The paint firm’s announcement comes on the heels of two other paint companies that this year chose gray-green shades as their 2022 leading color picks. PPG chose olive sprig, while Behr selected breezeway. Sherwin-Williams says evergreen fog is a calming color with nods to nature that could make a neutral backdrop not only for interiors but also for commercial spaces’ entry areas and lobbies.Read more from NAR's Realtor Magazine. Mortgage Market Update Mortgage Rates Show Little Change The slowdown in economic growth around the world has caused a flight to the quality of the U.S. financial markets. This has led to a rise in foreign investor purchases of U.S. Treasuries, causing mortgage rates to remain in place, despite the increasing dispersion of inflation across different consumer goods and services. We hope you enjoyed this week's Market News. For more information about how PMA can help you, please contact us. Plymouth Meeting Office: 610.834.8700 Doylestown Office: 215.345.7600 Ocean City, NJ Office: 609.398.8600 info@phillyadvisors.com www.phillyadvisors.com Join Our Mailing List Information and analysis is obtained through third parties and is deemed accurate but not guaranteed. Philadelphia Mortgage Advisors is a licensed mortgage lender by the PA Dept. of Banking and Securities, NJ Dept. of Banking & Insurance, the state of DE, the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, MD Mortgage Lender #23004 and VA State Corporation Commission #MC - 6797. NMLS #128570.

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