Morning Roundup (6/21/2022) – Existing-Home Sales Slip, Affordability Declines
Good Morning! Today is Tuesday, June 21 and the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. Biden said that he was considering suspending the federal gas tax to ease fuel prices. Moscow says it has two American fighters in its custody.
The Mortgage Note Reports
Existing-Home Sales Slip: Existing-home sales dropped for the third consecutive month, falling 2.4% month-over-month and 5.9% year-over-year.
Affordability Challenges: Affordability is at a 15-year low, with mortgage payments up in 45 of the 50 largest U.S. metros.
And in other mortgage and housing news…
Market Normizational Stays Slow: Potential existing home sales fell 2% month-over-month and are down 10.5% YOY, which FirstAm says is partially the result of homeowners with no incentive to sell hanging on to their properties.
Spending Power: A homebuyer on a $2,500 monthly budget has lost nearly $120,000 in spending power since the end of last year as mortgage rates have nearly doubled.
Home Sales Fall: Home sales fell 3% last month, their only May decline on record outside of May 2020 when the pandemic held buyers back.
Conference Board Expectations: About 76% of CEOs globally expect a recession in the next 12 to 18 months, and 15% figure their region is already in a recession.
CFPB Rules: Rohit Chopra said in a blog post that the CFPB is looking to “move away from highly complicated rules” and plans to move towards “basic bright-line guidance.”
NewRez Rebrand: New Residential is rebranding as Rithm Capital Corp. and has entered into agreements for the internalization of the Company’s management function.
“A Far Different Landscape”: News of a cooling housing market might be a relief, but we’ll be living with the effects for a long time, Brooke Sample argues in Bloomberg.
ForeclosureTown: These 10 zip codes had the worst foreclosure rates in May 2022.
Price Drops: Home sellers are dropping their prices in Salt Lake City, Boise, and other migration hot spots that previously saw huge demand.