Blog - May 2022
WASHINGTON (May 19, 2022) – Existing-home sales recorded a third straight month of declines, slipping slightly in April, according to the National Association of Realtors®. Month-over-month sales were split amongst the four major U.S. regions, with two areas posting gains and the other two experiencing waning in April. Year-over-year sales struggled, as each of the four regions reported dips.
New Biden-Harris Administration Housing Supply Action Plan To Help Close the Housing Supply Gap in Five Years
As President Biden said last week, tackling inflation is his top economic priority. Today, President Biden is releasing a Housing Supply Action Plan to ease the burden of housing costs over time, by boosting the supply of quality housing in every community. His plan includes legislative and administrative actions that will help close America’s housing supply shortfall in 5 years, starting with the creation and preservation of hundreds of thousands of affordable housing units in the next three years. When aligned with other policies to reduce housing costs and ensure affordability, such as rental assistance and downpayment assistance, closing the gap will mean more affordable rents and more attainable homeownership for Americans in every community. This is the most comprehensive all of government effort to close the housing supply shortfall in history.
MONTHLY NEW RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION, APRIL 2022
Release Number: CB22‐82
Notice of Revision: With this release, unadjusted estimates of housing units authorized by building permits for January through
December 2021 have been revised. Also, seasonally adjusted estimates of housing units authorized by building permits have
been revised back to January 2016, and seasonally adjusted estimates of housing units authorized but not started, started,
under construction, and completed have been revised back to January 2017. All revised estimates are available on our website.
In a sign that the housing market is now slowing, builder confidence took a steep drop in May as growing affordability challenges in the form of rapidly rising interest rates, double-digit price increases for material costs and ongoing home price appreciation are taking a toll on buyer demand.
Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes fell eight points to 69 in May, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). This is the fifth straight month that builder sentiment has declined and the lowest reading since June 2020.
IMPACT OF INSTITUTIONAL BUYERS ON HOME SALES AND SINGLE-FAMILY RENTALS
Objective of the Research
The home sales and rental markets continue to suffer from a huge undersupply of both for-sale and for-own
units. As of March, the inventory of existing-homes on the market was equivalent to just two months of
supply, well below the desired level of six months. The median existing-home sales price continues to
increase at a double digit pace of 15% year-over-year.
The Enterprises' Foreclosure Prevention Actions:
The Enterprises completed 40,648 foreclosure prevention actions in February, bringing the total to 6,451,783 since the start of the conservatorships in September 2008. Approximately 39 percent of these actions have been permanent loan modifications.
There were 14,350 permanent loan modifications in February, bringing the total to 2,526,661 since the conservatorships began in September 2008.
Six percent of modifications in February were modifications with principal forbearance. Modifications that include reduce rate and extend-term accounted for 73 percent of all loan modifications during the month.
The number of borrowers who received payment deferrals after completing a COVID-19 related forbearance plan decreased 11 percent from 22,275 in January to 19,889 in February.