Consumers spent heavily on transportation, travel, and recreation—all indicators that point to consumers getting out of their homes either for leisure or for work even as delta variant cases started to rise in July.
NAR released a summary of existing-home sales data showing that housing market activity this November increased 1.9% from October 2021, the third consecutive month of increase.
Net absorption of retail space during the Q3 totaled 30.2 million square feet (msf) and was the highest level since the fourth quarter of 2017.
Mortgage rates slightly rose this week after the Fed announced a taper acceleration and three rate hikes to follow in 2022.
In 2021, single-family existing-home prices rose at the fastest pace in five decades at an average year-over-year pace of 18%, driven by strong job growth, historically low mortgage rates, a post-pandemic recovery in household formation, and inadequate housing construction and pandemic-induced supply bottlenecks.
At the national level, housing affordability fell in October compared to the previous month, with monthly mortgage payment up by 3.1% and median family income up by 0.7%.
Amid the economic uncertainty wrought by the emergence of the omicron COVID variant, fewer leases were signed and office occupancy fell again in 2021 Q4.
Consumer prices rose 6.8% in November, with higher food and gasoline prices; rents are accelerating and utilities are higher by 25%.
The year 2021 has been a record-breaking year for both home sales and home rentals, but with home prices and rents rising at a double-digit pace, is there anywhere still relatively cheaper to own than to rent?
Mortgage rates continued to remain roughly stable for the last 4 weeks, despite volatility in bond yields. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate slightly fell to 3.10% from 3.11% the previous week.
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