This time of year, with summer and long holiday weekends it seems the markets and even rates move sideways and this week has been no exception. In fact, “Mortgage rates have hovered in the six to seven percent range for over six months and, despite affordability headwinds, homebuyers have adjusted and driven new home sales to its highest level in more than a year,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist.
As Mr. Khater says, we’re seeing improving demand for home purchases, particularly with new homes as there is slightly more supply to work with than the resale home market. If you’re considering a home purchase soon, let’s come up with a plan for you. You’re always welcome to give me a call or text at 818.307.6072 or simply send me an email.
Despite this being a holiday-shortened week in observance of the Independence Day holiday, there are a few highly anticipated economic reports coming out, namely jobs reports, ending the week on Friday with the government’s monthly report on the nation’s employment market.
To begin the week we saw Construction spending handily beating expectations, rising 0.9 percent in one month, thanks in large part to the rise in residential construction spending.
We also saw a report that according to RedFin the typical U.S. home is selling for just 1.0 percent less than the high set last year in June. The issue of tight inventory is keeping prices elevated.
On Thursday we start to see the employment reports come out. The ADP report on private sector job creation is forecasting June’s private payroll growth number at 235,000. This would compare with May growth in private payrolls reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of 283,000. ADP’s number for May was very close at 278,000.
Then Friday we’ll see the government’s Jobs Report. A 213,000 rise is the call for job growth in June versus 339,000 in May which was much higher than expected. Average hourly earnings in June are expected to rise 0.3 percent on the month for a year-over-year rate of 4.2 percent; these would show no to very little change from 0.3 and 4.3 percent in May. June’s unemployment rate is expected to hold unchanged at 3.7 percent.
