Without much to go on, the stock market has traded within a
fairly narrow range this week. Corporate
earnings which are being released daily are coming out with few surprises. Friday the market may take a jump because the
latest government report on GDP. It was
reported at 8:30am Friday that GDP grew 2.5% for the first quarter of
2013. This increase was more than most
experts predicted. More importantly it
shows that the country is continuing to get back to consistent economic growth.
When it comes to the real estate market, we have a growing
divide between the “haves” and “don’t haves”.
Existing homes sales unexpectedly declined .6% in March. The number of existing homes coming on the
market for sale has been somewhat stagnant.
This stagnation bodes well for the homeowners who do place their homes
for sale. Not only are homes selling
quickly, but prices are rising rapidly in many parts of the country. The median home price jumped 6.2% from
February which is one of the largest increases we have seen since 2005.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) which relies on
data provided from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on single family homes reported
that home prices increased .7% in March.
This follows a .6% rise in February.
Home prices are up 7.1% from the same time last year.
The housing sector is moving forward right now but not very
quickly or very much. New home sales rose 1.5 percent in March which follows an
unusually weak month in February. The
challenge of low housing supply is partially due to tight credit available for
builders in residential construction to launch new projects.
Mortgage rates have been declining in recent weeks on
account of most of the economic data coming out has been without surprise. In fact some reports have been weaker than
expected which has been making investors jittery about making big bets in the
stock market. Many investors have been
pulling back on their trading activity and placing money in the safety of
government bonds which drives down mortgage rates. This week the 15 year fixed hit an all time
new record low. Despite very low rates
purchase and refinance loan applications only increased by .3% in the prior
week as reported by the Mortgage Bankers Association.
The employment sector seems to once again be on the path to
improvement. After a few weeks of first
time jobless claims rising and even coming close the 400,000 level, last week’s
claims dropped down to 339,000. This is the lowest level since early March and
the trend seems to be continuing to improve as of late. Next week Friday May 3rd the
national unemployment rate will be released.
JJ Mack
916-517-1800
jj.mack@apmortgage.com
www.apmcroseville.com
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