Housing Snapshot
On the strength of impressive job gains in March and hopes that the economy is finally starting to gain its full strength, mortgage interest rates increased last week for the second week in a row. While the higher rates discouraged some refinancing, they remained at levels that were very favorable for home buyers. Economists at Freddie Mac said that they are still predicting that fixed-rate mortgages will average less than 6% for the year as a whole. Housing analysts expect improvements in the job market to make up for some of the sales activity lost to rising mortgage rates in the months ahead. Meanwhile, the situation in lumber prices continued to worsen last week. Framing lumber rose to $420 per 1,000 board feet from $398 during the previous week, according to Random Lengths. This was the highest price in almost three years. And the costs of plywood and Oriented Strand Board reached record territory. The mill price for 15/32-inch 3-ply CDX Southern Westside plywood was $510 per 1,000 square feet and OSB was $510, compared to $187 during the same week a year earlier. [ MORE ]
Mortgage Interest Rates
30-Year Fixed-Rate: 5.79%
15-Year Fixed-Rate: 5.12%
1-Year ARM: 3.65%
Housing Starts - Feb. 2004*
Total: 1.855
Single-Family Starts: 1.489
Multifamily Starts: 366,000
New Home Sales Feb. 2004*
1.163 million
Existing Home Sales Apr. 2004*
6.12 million
* Seasonally adjusted annual rate