Housing Snapshot
Mortgage rates increased only a tad last week, less than expected following hints by the Federal Reserve that today's low interest rates won't last forever. Looking ahead, job creation remains the focal point for the economy. While the Labor Department reported last week that 112,000 jobs were created in January, that was well below the pace predicted by the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, which expects 2.6 million new jobs this year. It could be wrong: last year the Administration anticipated 1.7 million new jobs, when there was actually a loss of 53,000. Productivity gains of 4.9% in 2002 and 4.2% last year have been an impediment to a major turnaround in unemployment woes, so it was a good sign that productivity declined to an annual pace of 2.7% in the final quarter of 2003, down sharply from 9.5% in the prior three months. Lumber prices last week continued to climb, although at less than a torrid pace. Random Lengths reported that the price of framing lumber was up $4 to $356 per 1,000 board feet. The mill price for 15/32-inch 3-ply CDX Southern Westside plywood was up $5 to $435 per 1,000 square feet, up from $248 a year earlier; and oriented strand board jumped $25 to $440 compared to $188 a year earlier. [ MORE ]
Mortgage Interest Rates
30-Year Fixed-Rate: 5.72%
15-Year Fixed-Rate: 5.03%
1-Year ARM: 3.61%
Housing Starts - Dec. 2003*
Total: 2.088 million
Single-Family Starts: 1.664 million
Multifamily Starts: 397,000
New Home Sales Dec. 2003*
1.060 million
Existing Home Sales Dec. 2003*
6.47 million
* Seasonally adjusted annual rate