Housing Snapshot
In a fairly quiet week for the economy, mortgage interest rates remained virtually unchanged last Thursday from the prior week. Freddie Mac reported that 30-year, fixed-rate loans remained at 6.05%. Mortgage rates are expected to vacillate within a narrow range for the next several months and the prime rate should remain at 4%. From a trouble spot for home builders, the news was reassuring last week: the costs of framing lumber, plywood and Oriented Strand Board all continued to head in the downward direction. Falling to $319 per 1,000 board from $323 the prior week, framing lumber is not problematic for the industry. Mill prices for 15/32-inch 3-ply CDX Southern Westside plywood fell $10 to $535 per 1,000 square feet and OSB remained unchanged at $465. The latter was only $162 a year earlier. So while prices may have leveled off, builders are going to have to hear a lot more good news before prices are even close to the levels at which the industry would like to see them. [ MORE ]
Mortgage Interest Rates
30-Year Fixed-Rate: 6.05%
15-Year Fixed-Rate: 5.39%
1-Year ARM: 3.76%
Housing Starts - Sep. 2003*
Total: 1.89 million
Single-Family Starts: 1.52 million
Multifamily Starts: 368,000
New Home Sales Aug. 2003*
1.15 million
Existing Home Sales Aug. 2003*
6.47 million
* Seasonally adjusted annual rate