By Michael Neal According to the Federal Reserve Board’s first quarter of 2017 release of its Financial Accounts of the United States report, household holdings of real estate, measured on a not seasonally adjusted basis, totaled $23.526 trillion in the first quarter of 2017, $1.597 trillion higher than its level in the first quarter of 2016. Home mortgage debt outstanding, …

By Michael Neal According to the Federal Reserve Board’s G.19 Consumer Credit report, the total amount of consumer credit outstanding rose by 2.6 percent (SAAR) over the month of April 2017 to $3.82 trillion. Revolving credit, which is largely composed of credit card debt and represents $1.01 trillion, rose by 1.8 percent while non-revolving credit, which encompasses auto and student …

By Michael Neal Following 4 consecutive monthly increases, results from the Mortgage Interest Rate Survey (MIRS) released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) indicate that mortgage rates fell in April 2017, its second consecutive month of declines. Over the month, contract rates on mortgages used to purchase single-family newly constructed homes declined by 10 basis points to 4.02 percent. …

By Michael Neal According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York report, household debt has returned to its previous peak level. Since the recession’s end, consumer installment loans have grown faster than real-estate secured debt and has been shown to be rising faster than household income as well. At the same time however, transition rates into serious delinquency are …

By Michael Neal Following a surprising, but small, increase in the percent of 1-4 family first-lien mortgages that were either 90 or more days delinquent or were in the process of foreclosure over the fourth quarter of 2016, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that the measure continued its descent in the first quarter of 2017. This measure of delinquency, at …

By Michael Neal Over the first quarter of 2017, builders and developers reported easing credit conditions for acquisition, development, and single-family construction (AD&C) loans and the pace of easing quickened. Historically, results from the NAHB’s AD&C Financing Survey have tracked quarterly changes in bank-held residential construction loans. The overall net tightening index based on the AD&C Financing Survey was -25.0 …

By Michael Neal Analysis of data from the most recent release of the American Housing Survey indicates that households with two generations and those with three generations tended to remodel more than households with only one generation. Within two-generation households, however, those that include a generation older than the household head were less likely to remodel, but tended to spend …

By Michael Neal Results from the most recent iteration of the Federal Reserve Board’s Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SLOOS), covering the first quarter of 2017, indicates that demand for both multifamily and construction and land development loans continued to weaken while lending standards on these loans continued to tighten. Construction and land development loans include both residential construction loans, …