Completions climb to a three-month high. Builders finalized more single-family and multifamily housing units combined in July than in either of the previous two months. Deliveries will likely trend higher in the coming quarters as well. The moderation in the cost of a few key materials, most notably lumber, has boosted permit activity and is helping the pipeline of stalled residential developments…
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Supported by the economic reopening, job openings surged to a record high 10.1M in June. Meanwhile, the labor force has 8.7M unemployed persons in July. This disconnect in hiring is weighing on CRE performance…
Read MoreOn Aug. 3 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention enacted a new order halting residential evictions in counties with substantial or high levels of COVID-19 community transmission. As of Aug. 17, most counties in the U.S. met that criteria, effectively extending a ban on residential evictions…
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Increased spending, job growth, and the re-opening of the economy supported strong CRE performance in 2Q. Apartments saw one of the strongest quarters…
Read MoreUnemployment steadily tightens. Job creation surpassed 900,000 new positions for the second consecutive month in July, lowering the unemployment rate 50 basis points month over month to 5.4 percent. While above the historically low 3.5 percent unemployment recorded just prior to the pandemic, the measure is still below…
Read MoreGrowth remains steady. In the second quarter, the economy expanded 6.5 percent on an annualized basis. Gains would have been larger but supply-chain challenges and labor shortage hamstrung improvement. Those issues should be transitory, however…
Read MoreListings of newly built homes prop up for-sale inventory. The number of single-family houses available for purchase grew by 3.8 percent from May to June, a change of tides after listings steadily declined during the pandemic. Specifically, the number of new homes for sale increased at the fastest pace…
Read MoreThe start of the academic year will unlock employment growth potential as nearly 2 million workers sidelined by child-care challenges are able to return…
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