Structured Wiring Among Technological Advances Transforming the American Home

This is the third in a series of three articles recognizing the National Council of the Housing Industry’s 40th anniversary and the myriad contributions of its product manufacturers and suppliers.

Today’s new homes are definitely “wired” for high-speed connectivity to the Internet and beyond, but for most families …

Housing Snapshot

While the Federal Reserve continues on the path of slowly driving up interest rates, mortgage rates have remained in a narrow band around the 6% range and last week continued to decline slightly. While the Fed and others are seeing growing signs that the economy is rallying from the lethargic months of the summer, the news on the state of the economy has been mixed. The Conference Board Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators was down for the third month in a row in August. And oil has been drawing increasingly closer to the $50 a barrel mark, largely because of the temporary interruption of production from the Gulf of Mexico by Hurricane Ivan. The lumber price front provided the housing industry with relatively good news last week, according to reports from Random Lengths. While still on the high side, the cost of framing lumber continued its recent decline and was down $24 to $407 per 1,000 board feet. The price of 15/32-inch 3-ply sheathing was down $10 to $435 per 1,000 square feet, and oriented strand board was down precipitously, falling $80 to $310, as mills held an abundant amount of the product ready for shipment.

Mortgage Interest Rates
30-Year Fixed-Rate	5.70%
15-Year Fixed-Rate	5.10%
1-Year ARM	4.0%
Housing Starts - Aug. 2004*
Total	2.0 million
Single-Family Starts	1.667 million
Multifamily Starts	333,000
New Home Sales Aug. 2004*	1.184 million
Existing Home Sales Aug. 2004*	6.54 million
* Seasonally adjusted annual rate