US Housing Market Data Response New Home Sales (May) Strong growth in both new and existing sales in May pushed total home sales up to an eight-year high. This confirms that the renewed strength in the labour market and consumer spending are feeding... 23rd June 2015 · 1 min read
US Chart Pack Evidence mounts of a big second-quarter rebound There is now a wide mix of evidence showing that, after a very weak start to the year, the economy is booming again. May is turning out to be a particularly strong month: Existing home sales hit a six... 23rd June 2015 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Focus Can the link between housing starts and sales be recalibrated? At first glance, the strong link between housing starts and transactions suggests that a step shift in housing supply will only be possible if turnover in the wider market is raised sharply first. But... 23rd June 2015 · 1 min read
US Housing Market Data Response Existing Home Sales (May) Existing home sales rebounded to their highest level in almost six years in May, showing that the boosts to housing activity from strong jobs growth and looser credit conditions have outweighed any... 22nd June 2015 · 1 min read
US Housing Market Focus Will homebuilding ever return to the highs of 2006? We are forecasting housing starts to surge by almost 40% over the next few years, reaching 1.5m by the end of 2017. It’s possible that starts could rise even more rapidly in the short term as builders... 19th June 2015 · 1 min read
US Housing Market Data Response Housing Starts (May) Despite the drop back in housing starts in May, the recent data show that homebuilders’ confidence in the housing recovery is growing. Coupled with mounting evidence of a second-quarter rebound in the... 16th June 2015 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Update Has Help to Buy really helped? The Help to Buy scheme was able to temporarily boost the availability of low deposit mortgages, helping a lucky few first-time buyers. But that improvement is proving to be temporary, as the resulting... 15th June 2015 · 1 min read
Middle East & North Africa Economic Outlook Gulf countries weathering the storm, but growth to weaken The Gulf economies have weathered the storm created by low oil prices relatively well this year, with foreign exchange reserves having been drawn down to sustain spending. Large savings mean that this... 15th June 2015 · 1 min read
Canada Data Response Teranet-National Bank House Prices (May) The rate of house price inflation edged up to 4.6% in May, from 4.4%, and the recent rebound in the existing home sales-to-new listings ratio indicates that is where it might remain over the rest of... 12th June 2015 · 1 min read
US Housing Market Update Have D.C. home prices hit a wall? Negative house price growth in D.C. in the first quarter is a worrying development given that the economy has underperformed and housing looks highly overvalued. This doesn’t necessarily signal the... 11th June 2015 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Data Response Mortgage Lenders and Administrators Statistics (Q1) The introduction of new mortgage regulations depressed mortgage lending over the past year, and has incentivised lenders to turn to the non-regulated sector. Non-regulated loans, mainly buy-to-let... 9th June 2015 · 1 min read
US Housing Market Chart Pack Homebuilding finally gets back on track Housing starts surged by 20% m/m to a seven-year high of 1.14m annualised in April, as homebuilders finally put the weather-related difficulties at the start of the year behind them. Looking ahead... 8th June 2015 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Chart Pack Early signs that housing demand is recovering With mortgage interest rates at record lows and wages finally starting to grow it is not surprising that housing market activity and house prices are now picking up. Those supports will remain in... 8th June 2015 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Data Response Halifax House Prices (May) The slight fall in house prices in May reported by the Halifax doesn’t alter the bigger picture that prices are under steady upwards pressure. With very few homes for sale and the mortgage market... 4th June 2015 · 1 min read
US Housing Market Data Response Mortgage Applications (May) Refinancing activity took another big hit in May as mortgage interest rates rose to their highest level this year. However, mortgage applications for home purchase held on to their recent gains and we... 3rd June 2015 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Data Response Nationwide House Prices (May) Underlying house price growth picked-up in May according to the Nationwide, as a slow recovery in housing demand has run up against very low levels of homes for sale. We expect that demand will... 3rd June 2015 · 1 min read
