by Calculated Risk on 2/20/2024 04:20:00 PM

From the MBA: Share of Mortgage Loans in Forbearance Decreases Slightly to 0.22% in January

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) monthly Loan Monitoring Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 1 basis point from 0.23% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior month to 0.22% as of January 31, 2024. According to MBA’s estimate, 110,000 homeowners are in forbearance plans. Mortgage servicers have provided forbearance to approximately 8.1 million borrowers since March 2020.

In January 2024, the share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance declined 2 basis points to 0.13%. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance remained the same at 0.39%, and the forbearance share for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) increased 1 basis point to 0.28%.

“The combination of a potential economic slowdown in 2024, and indications that consumer debt balances and delinquencies are on the rise, could lead to more homeowners struggling to make their mortgage payments and inquire about forbearance and available loan workout options,” said Marina Walsh, CMB, MBA’s Vice President of Industry Analysis. “Most pandemic-related protocols have sunset, which gives mortgage servicers different rules of engagement when it comes to assisting borrowers through loan forbearance or a loan workout.”
emphasis added

At the end of January, there were about 110,000 homeowners in forbearance plans.

by Calculated Risk on 2/20/2024 02:49:00 PM

Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Lawler: Update on Invitation Homes Rental Trends

A brief excerpt:

From housing economist Tom Lawler:

Below is a table derived from the Q4/2023 (and earlier) Earnings Release and Supplemental Information from Invitation Homes, one of the largest institutional investors in single-family rental homes. (The January figures are based on figures from officials on the earnings conference call.)

Note that while the YOY increase in rent renewals last quarter actually rose slightly from the previous quarter, the YOY increase in new leases was zero, and according to officials on the conference call was negative in January.

There is much more in the article.

by Calculated Risk on 2/20/2024 02:19:00 PM

This is something I check occasionally.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) reported:

• Travel on all roads and streets changed by +2.2% (+5.7 billion vehicle miles) for December 2023 as compared with December 2022. Travel for the month is estimated to be 263.7 billion vehicle miles.

• The seasonally adjusted vehicle miles traveled for December 2023 is 273.0 billion miles, a +2.7% ( +7.3 billion vehicle miles) change over December 2022. It also represents a -0.2% change (-0.5 billion vehicle miles) compared with November 2023.

• Cumulative Travel for 2023 changed by +2.1% (+67.5 billion vehicle miles). The cumulative estimate for the year is 3,263.7 billion vehicle miles of travel.
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

This graph shows the monthly total vehicle miles driven, seasonally adjusted.

Miles driven declined sharply in March 2020, and really collapsed in April 2020.  Miles driven are now at pre-pandemic levels.

by Calculated Risk on 2/20/2024 10:50:00 AM

Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Single Family Built-for-Rent Almost Doubled Since 2020

A brief excerpt:

Along with the monthly housing starts report for January released last week, the Census Bureau also released Housing Units Started by Purpose and Design through Q4 2023.

The first graph shows the number of single family and multi-family units started with the intent to rent. This data is quarterly and Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA). Although the majority of units built-for-rent’ are still multi-family (blue), there has been a significant pickup in single family units started built-for-rent (red).

In 2020, there were 44,000 single family units started with the intent to rent. In 2023, that number almost doubled to 85,000 units. For multi-family, there were 327,000 units started to rent in 2020, and 393,000 in 2023. About 18% of the built-for-rent units started in 2023 were single family units.

There is much more in the article.

by Calculated Risk on 2/20/2024 08:59:00 AM

Housing economist Tom Lawler has been sending me his predictions of what the NAR will report for almost 14 years.  He has graciously allowed me to share his predictions with the readers of this blog.

The table below shows the consensus for each month, Lawler's predictions, and the NAR's initially reported level of sales.  Lawler hasn't always been closer than the consensus, but usually when there has been a fairly large spread between Lawler's estimate and the "consensus", Lawler has been closer.

The NAR is scheduled to release Existing Home Sales for January on Thursday at 10:00 AM, February 22nd.  The consensus is for 3.97 million SAAR, up from 3.78 million. Tom Lawler estimates the NAR will report sales of 4.02 million SAAR.

Over the last 14 years, the consensus average miss was 140 thousand (median 110 thousand), and Lawler's average miss was 72 thousand (median 60 thousand).

Note on Median Prices: Lawler has also been very close on median prices, and he expects the NAR to report prices up about 5.4% year-over-year.

Existing Home Sales, Forecasts and NAR Report millions, seasonally adjusted annual rate basis (SAAR)
Month	Consensus	Lawler	NAR reported1
May-10	6.20	5.83	5.66
Jun-10	5.30	5.30	5.37
Jul-10	4.66	3.95	3.83
Aug-10	4.10	4.10	4.13
Sep-10	4.30	4.50	4.53
Oct-10	4.50	4.46	4.43
Nov-10	4.85	4.61	4.68
Dec-10	4.90	5.13	5.28
Jan-11	5.20	5.17	5.36
Feb-11	5.15	5.00	4.88
Mar-11	5.00	5.08	5.10
Apr-11	5.20	5.15	5.05
May-11	4.75	4.80	4.81
Jun-11	4.90	4.71	4.77
Jul-11	4.92	4.69	4.67
Aug-11	4.75	4.92	5.03
Sep-11	4.93	4.83	4.91
Oct-11	4.80	4.86	4.97
Nov-11	5.08	4.40	4.42
Dec-11	4.60	4.64	4.61
Jan-12	4.69	4.66	4.57
Feb-12	4.61	4.63	4.59
Mar-12	4.62	4.59	4.48
Apr-12	4.66	4.53	4.62
May-12	4.57	4.66	4.55
Jun-12	4.65	4.56	4.37
Jul-12	4.50	4.47	4.47
Aug-12	4.55	4.87	4.82
Sep-12	4.75	4.70	4.75
Oct-12	4.74	4.84	4.79
Nov-12	4.90	5.10	5.04
Dec-12	5.10	4.97	4.94
Jan-13	4.90	4.94	4.92
Feb-13	5.01	4.87	4.98
Mar-13	5.03	4.89	4.92
Apr-13	4.92	5.03	4.97
May-13	5.00	5.20	5.18
Jun-13	5.27	4.99	5.08
Jul-13	5.13	5.33	5.39
Aug-13	5.25	5.35	5.48
Sep-13	5.30	5.26	5.29
Oct-13	5.13	5.08	5.12
Nov-13	5.02	4.98	4.90
Dec-13	4.90	4.96	4.87
Jan-14	4.70	4.67	4.62
Feb-14	4.64	4.60	4.60
Mar-14	4.56	4.64	4.59
Apr-14	4.67	4.70	4.65
May-14	4.75	4.81	4.89
Jun-14	4.99	4.96	5.04
Jul-14	5.00	5.09	5.15
Aug-14	5.18	5.12	5.05
Sep-14	5.09	5.14	5.17
Oct-14	5.15	5.28	5.26
Nov-14	5.20	4.90	4.93
Dec-14	5.05	5.15	5.04
Jan-15	5.00	4.90	4.82
Feb-15	4.94	4.87	4.88
Mar-15	5.04	5.18	5.19
Apr-15	5.22	5.20	5.04
May-15	5.25	5.29	5.35
Jun-15	5.40	5.45	5.49
Jul-15	5.41	5.64	5.59
Aug-15	5.50	5.54	5.31
Sep-15	5.35	5.56	5.55
Oct-15	5.41	5.33	5.36
Nov-15	5.32	4.97	4.76
Dec-15	5.19	5.36	5.46
Jan-16	5.32	5.36	5.47
Feb-16	5.30	5.20	5.08
Mar-16	5.27	5.27	5.33
Apr-16	5.40	5.44	5.45
May-16	5.64	5.55	5.53
Jun-16	5.48	5.62	5.57
Jul-16	5.52	5.41	5.39
Aug-16	5.44	5.49	5.33
Sep-16	5.35	5.55	5.47
Oct-16	5.44	5.47	5.60
Nov-16	5.54	5.60	5.61
Dec-16	5.54	5.55	5.49
Jan-17	5.55	5.60	5.69
Feb-17	5.55	5.41	5.48
Mar-17	5.61	5.74	5.71
Apr-17	5.67	5.56	5.57
May-17	5.55	5.65	5.62
Jun-17	5.58	5.59	5.52
Jul-17	5.57	5.38	5.44
Aug-17	5.48	5.39	5.35
Sep-17	5.30	5.38	5.39
Oct-17	5.30	5.60	5.48
Nov-17	5.52	5.77	5.81
Dec-17	5.75	5.66	5.57
Jan-18	5.65	5.48	5.38
Feb-18	5.42	5.44	5.54
Mar-18	5.28	5.51	5.60
Apr-18	5.60	5.48	5.46
May-18	5.56	5.47	5.43
Jun-18	5.45	5.35	5.38
Jul-18	5.43	5.40	5.34
Aug-18	5.36	5.36	5.34
Sep-18	5.30	5.20	5.15
Oct-18	5.20	5.31	5.22
Nov-18	5.19	5.23	5.32
Dec-18	5.24	4.97	4.99
Jan-19	5.05	4.92	4.94
Feb-19	5.08	5.46	5.51
Mar-19	5.30	5.40	5.21
Apr-19	5.36	5.31	5.19
May-19	5.29	5.40	5.34
Jun-19	5.34	5.25	5.27
Jul-19	5.39	5.40	5.42
Aug-19	5.38	5.42	5.49
Sep-19	5.45	5.36	5.38
Oct-19	5.49	5.36	5.46
Nov-19	5.45	5.43	5.35
Dec-19	5.43	5.40	5.54
Jan-20	5.45	5.42	5.46
Feb-20	5.50	5.58	5.77
Mar-20	5.30	5.25	5.27
Apr-20	4.30	4.17	4.33
May-20	4.38	3.80	3.91
Jun-20	4.86	4.65	4.72
Jul-20	5.39	5.85	5.86
Aug-20	6.00	5.92	6.00
Sep-20	6.25	6.38	6.54
Oct-20	6.45	6.63	6.85
Nov-20	6.70	6.50	6.69
Dec-20	6.55	6.62	6.76
Jan-21	6.60	6.48	6.69
Feb-21	6.51	6.29	6.22
Mar-21	6.17	6.02	6.01
Apr-21	6.09	5.96	5.85
May-21	5.74	5.78	5.80
Jun-21	5.90	5.79	5.86
Jul-21	5.84	5.86	5.99
Aug-21	5.88	5.90	5.88
Sep-21	6.06	6.20	6.29
Oct-21	6.20	6.34	6.34
Nov-21	6.20	6.45	6.46
Dec-21	6.45	6.33	6.18
Jan-22	6.12	6.36	6.50
Feb-22	6.16	5.97	6.02
Mar-22	5.80	5.74	5.77
Apr-22	5.62	5.57	5.61
May-22	5.41	5.35	5.41
Jun-22	5.40	5.12	5.12
Jul-22	4.88	4.90	4.81
Aug-22	4.70	4.84	4.80
Sep-22	4.69	4.82	4.71
Oct-22	4.39	4.49	4.43
Nov-22	4.20	4.16	4.09
Dec-22	3.95	3.96	4.02
Jan-23	4.10	4.18	4.00
Feb-23	4.18	4.51	4.58
Mar-23	4.50	4.51	4.44
Apr-23	4.30	4.33	4.28
May-23	4.24	4.25	4.30
Jun-23	4.23	4.26	4.16
Jul-23	4.15	4.06	4.07
Aug-23	4.10	4.07	4.04
Sep-23	3.94	4.00	3.96
Oct-23	3.93	3.94	3.79
Nov-23	3.78	3.87	3.82
Dec-23	3.84	3.84	3.78
Jan-24	3.97	4.02	NA
1NAR initially reported before revisions.

by Calculated Risk on 2/19/2024 06:18:00 PM

Weekend:
• Schedule for Week of February 18, 2024

Tuesday:
• No major economic releases scheduled.

From CNBC: Pre-Market Data and Bloomberg futures S&P 500 and DOW futures are mostly unchanged (fair value).

Oil prices were up over the last week with WTI futures at $79.28 per barrel and Brent at $83.28 per barrel. A year ago, WTI was at $76, and Brent was at $83 - so WTI oil prices were up 4% year-over-year.

Here is a graph from Gasbuddy.com for nationwide gasoline prices. Nationally prices are at $3.25 per gallon. A year ago, prices were at $3.36 per gallon, so gasoline prices are down $0.11 year-over-year.

by Calculated Risk on 2/19/2024 11:02:00 AM

Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: 3rd Look at Local Housing Markets in January; California Home Sales Up 5.9% YoY in January

A brief excerpt:

NOTE: The tables for active listings, new listings and closed sales all include a comparison to January 2019 for each local market (some 2019 data is not available).

This is the third look at several local markets in January. I’m tracking about 40 local housing markets in the US. Some of the 40 markets are states, and some are metropolitan areas. I’ll update these tables throughout the month as additional data is released.
...
Note: The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is scheduled to release January existing home sales on Thursday, February 22nd, at 10:00 AM ET. The consensus is for 3.97 million SAAR, up from 3.78 million.

Housing economist Tom Lawler expects the NAR to report sales of 4.02 million SAAR for January.
...
And a table of January sales.

In January, sales in these markets were up 3.0%. In December, these same markets were down 7.3% year-over-year Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA).

Sales in most of these markets are down sharply compared to January 2019.
...
More local markets to come!

There is much more in the article.

by Calculated Risk on 2/19/2024 08:12:00 AM

Altos reports that active single-family inventory was down 0.2% week-over-week. I expect inventory to bottom in February this year, as opposed to mid-April in 2023.

Click on graph for larger image.

This inventory graph is courtesy of Altos Research.

As of February 16th, inventory was at 494 thousand (7-day average), compared to 495 thousand the prior week.   

Inventory is still far below pre-pandemic levels.

The second graph shows the seasonal pattern for active single-family inventory since 2015.

The red line is for 2024.  The black line is for 2019.  Note that inventory is up double from the record low for the same week in 2022, but still well below normal levels.

Inventory was up 12.9% compared to the same week in 2023 (last week it was up 11.4%), and down 39.7% compared to the same week in 2019 (last week it was down 39.1%). 

Back in June 2023, inventory was down almost 54% compared to 2019, so the gap to more normal inventory levels has closed a little.

Mike Simonsen discusses this data regularly on Youtube.

by Calculated Risk on 2/18/2024 08:31:00 AM

From STR: U.S. hotel results for week ending 10 February

U.S. hotel performance increased from the previous week, while year-over-year comparisons remained mixed, according to CoStar’s latest data through 10 February. ...

4-10 February 2024 (percentage change from comparable week in 2023):

• Occupancy: 56.2% (-2.7%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$160.96 (+6.8%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$90.40 (+3.9%)
emphasis added

The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four-week average.

Click on graph for larger image.

The red line is for 2024, black is 2020, blue is the median, and dashed light blue is for 2023.  Dashed purple is for 2018, the record year for hotel occupancy. 

The 4-week average of the occupancy rate is tracking just below last year, and below the median rate for the period 2000 through 2023 (Blue).

Note: Y-axis doesn't start at zero to better show the seasonal change.

The 4-week average of the occupancy rate will increase seasonally over the next 2 months.

by Calculated Risk on 2/17/2024 02:11:00 PM

At the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter this week:

• Single Family Starts Up 22% Year-over-year in January; Multi-Family Starts Down Sharply

• Part 1: Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-February 2024

• Part 2: Current State of the Housing Market; Overview for mid-February 2024

• 2nd Look at Local Housing Markets in January

• Lawler: Update on “Is the “Natural” Rate of Interest Back to Pre-Financial Crisis Levels” Early Read on Existing Home Sales in January

This is usually published 4 to 6 times a week and provides more in-depth analysis of the housing market.