Housing Snapshot
Housing last week continued to dominate the good news coming out of the economy, but received a run for its money from a 1.9% increase on Wall Street on Friday. Reports on both new and existing home sales provided further evidence that 2003 will be another record-setter for the housing market. Mortgage interest rates rose for the third consecutive week, but that trend is not expected to discourage home buyers too much because the rates had fallen to such low levels. The Census Bureau said that 68% of the nation's households were home owners in this year's second quarter, a 0.6% increase over the same period a year earlier. The increase was twice as large for black families, which, along with other minorities, have been lagging significantly behind the white population. [ MORE ]
Mortgage Interest Rates
30-Year Fixed-Rate: 5.94%
15-Year Fixed-Rate: 5.27%
1-Year ARM: 3.67%
Housing Starts - Jun. 2003*
Total: 1.80 million
Single-Family Starts: 1.46 million
Multifamily Starts: 341,000
New Home Sales Jun. 2003*
1.16 million
Existing Home Sales Jun. 2003*
5.83 million
* Seasonally adjusted annual rate