Housing Snapshot
Amidst rising expectations for the Federal Reserve to start gradually moving up interest rates, mortgage rates continued their slow upward climb last week. Thirty-year, fixed-rate mortgages rose to 6.34% on Freddie Mac's weekly index, up from 5.45% a year earlier. General economic news suggested that the economy is perking up: Commerce Department statistics showed that exports in March increased 14.6% from a year earlier; and the Labor Department showed that the manufacturing sector added 21,000 jobs in April, the first increase in almost four years. There were also more signs of inflation last week: a 0.2% increase in the Consumer Price Index and a 0.8% rise in the producer price index in April, suggesting that the Fed may decide on its first rate hike next month. On the lumber front, framing lumber rose slightly to $463 per 1,000 board feet last week, according to Random Lengths, but panel prices tumbled to $485 per 1,000 square feet for 15/32-inch 3-ply CDX southern westeast plywood and to $450 for oriented strand board. They still have a lot more tumbling to do, however, before they return to normal levels. [ MORE ]
Mortgage Interest Rates
30-Year Fixed-Rate: 6.34%
15-Year Fixed-Rate: 5.72%
1-Year ARM: 3.90%
Housing Starts - Mar. 2004*
Total: 2.007 million
Single-Family Starts: 1.599 million
Multifamily Starts: 408,000
New Home Sales Mar. 2004*
1.228 million
Existing Home Sales Mar. 2004*
6.48 million
* Seasonally adjusted annual rate