Construction Spending

October 1 2024             Construction spending (the green bars above) declined 0.1% in August after having fallen 0.5% in July and 1.1% in June.  Construction spending climbed sharply in the first four months of this year, but it has...

Mortgage Loans

April 4, 2024 Real estate loans have been growing steadily for a number of months.  Specifically, they rose at a 4.4% pace in February.  That means that they have risen 2.9% in the past year.  If home sales quicken this year, as expected, mortgage loans should also...

Homeownership Rates

May 17, 2023 Home ownership rose 0.1% in the first quarter to 66.0 after having declined 0.1% in the fourth quarter.  Homeownership had been rising gradually for several years before the pandemic hit.  It jumped 2.6% in the second quarter of 2020 to 67.9, but has...

Mortgage Rate

February 3, 2021 Once the recession began in December 2007 the Fed tried to stimulate the economy and ultimately pushed the funds rate almost to 0%.  It remained at that record low level until December 2015 .Right after the election in November 2016 mortgage rates...