Morning Report: Home Purchas Sentiment Falls

Posted on November 8, 2022 by Brent Nyitray

Vital Statistics:

 LastChange
S&P futures3,82814.00
Oil (WTI)91.620.12
10 year government bond yield 4.19%
30 year fixed rate mortgage 7.15%

Stocks are higher this morning on no real news. Bonds and MBS are flat.

Small Business Optimism declined again, according to the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index. Inflation and a tight labor market remain the biggest issues. The number of businesses reporting inflation is back to levels last seen in the late 1970s. Labor shortages are particularly acute in transportation, construction and manufacturing.

A net 50% of companies reported raising prices. Retailers and wholesalers most widely reported raising prices. “The frequency of reported price increases was highest in the retail trades, 69%, followed by 64% in wholesale, and 61% in construction. The other industry groups averaged about 50% raising prices, with the exception of professional services at 20%. Clearly, consumers are being confronted with inflation in every aspect of their lives. So far, inflation has been resistant to the impact of higher interest rates. If the Fed were a “fiscal” arm of government, it could just raise taxes on everyone for a short period of time to slow spending. But it can’t and must rely on the tenuous link between interest rates and spending. Major expenditures by consumers can be impacted (cars, houses, boats, etc.), a slow, erratic process. Firms are more directly impacted as the cost of loans (capital) rises, making more and more investment outlays unprofitable and thus impacting employment and income in affected sectors.”

The part about the cost of capital is important, because in a labor-constrained environment, investing in productivity-enhancing technology could help alleviate this issue. Productivity has been lousy, and low productivity has always been a driver of inflation. As borrowing costs rise, the rate of return on these investments has to rise as well, or else it isn’t worth doing.

Fannie Mae reported third quarter earnings this morning. Acquisition volume was down 32% to $117.7 billion. Purchase volume fell 17% while refi volume declined 58%. On the purchase side, about 45% were first time homebuyers. Delinquencies fell again to 0.69% as more borrowers exited forbearance.

Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index hit an all-time low in October. The index only goes back to 2011, so it doesn’t capture the depths of the Great Recession. “The HPSI reached an all-time survey low this month, in line with expectations that the housing market will continue to cool in the months ahead,” said Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae Senior Vice President and Chief Economist. “Consumers are increasingly pessimistic about both homebuying and home-selling conditions. Amid persistently high home prices and unfavorable mortgage rates, the ‘bad time to buy’ component increased to a new survey high this month, while the ‘good time to sell’ component continued its downward trend. Consumers also remain concerned about the movement of home prices – expectations that prices will decrease reached a new survey high, particularly among homeowners – offering further support to our forecast of home price declines in 2023. As continued affordability constraints reduce homebuyer demand, and homeowners become reluctant to sell at potentially reduced prices, we expect home sales to slow even further in the coming months, consistent with our forecast.”

Fannie Mae sees future declines in home prices and sales in the coming months. With refinances out of the picture, seasonality is going to have a bigger impact on origination volumes. We have a few months to go until the Spring Selling Season kicks off, which is usually around the time of the Super Bowl.

Filed under: Economy |

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16 Responses

  1. Kevin S. Willis's avatar
    Kevin S. Willis, on November 8, 2022 at 9:54 am said:

    Great piece by Michael Tracey:

    https://mtracey.substack.com/p/newsflash-republicans-are-largely?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=303188&post_id=83176177&isFreemail=false&utm_medium=email

    Illustrating why no matter who wins, we’re still pretty fucked.

    I tried to glean some additional insight and asked Shaffer if he believes the US has been too generous, or too limited, in its ongoing “support” for Ukraine. He replied, “I don’t know the answer, I’d have to look into that.”

    Hold on a second — this candidate for Congress hasn’t yet “looked into” the matter of Ukraine war policy? Days before an election in which he’s vying to become one of only 18 people in the entire state of Pennsylvania who’ll have the direct power to vote on relevant war appropriations? We’re down to the wire here, and Shaffer claims he’s just never found the time to “look into” this expansive US military intervention, which his own party leader Kevin McCarthy has repeatedly likened to an epic world-altering struggle against the modern-day version of Hitler. That’s reassuring.

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  2. jnc4p's avatar
    jnc4p, on November 8, 2022 at 11:44 am said:

    The Post today:

    “Dispatch from Va.: A disgusted Democrat says ‘we need Trump back’
    By Antonio Olivo

    Niaz Ali, 29, walked out of an elementary school after casting his ballot in deep blue Northern Virginia, and stopped to take a selfie.

    He wanted to record the day when he switched parties, from Democrat to Republican. Ali, who is from Pakistan, said he has long supported Democrats but has lately been frustrated by inflation and illegal immigration.

    “They [messed up] everything,” he said of Democrats. “We need Trump back.”

    Ali voted for the Republican running for the House in Virginia’s 7th District, Yesli Vega, but didn’t know anything about her.”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/08/election-live-results-updates-2022/#link-Z7UTHAJITJFMFHM3VR4UXUIKGE

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  3. Let the mutherfuker burn!'s avatar
    Let the mutherfuker burn!, on November 8, 2022 at 1:35 pm said:

    This is just exquisite!

    It takes your breath away.

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  4. jnc4p's avatar
    jnc4p, on November 8, 2022 at 2:11 pm said:

    “”Violence,” “Democracy Itself,” and Fetterman’s Shorts: The Official 2022 Midterm Election Drinking Game

    The hammer-to-cranium feel of congressional election propaganda will worsen exponentially tonight. Your guide to drinking the pain away

    Matt Taibbi

    America could be stumbling drunk pretty fast tonight just based on Rule #1 of the Official 2022 Midterm Election Drinking Game: drink at every mention of democracy itself. We’ve been told for months that’s what’s at stake, and it’s a safe bet you’ll be told it again tonight at least enough times to drain a bottle or two.

    But what fun would a drinking game with one rule be? Especially at the end (we hope!) of a political season as infuriating as this one, we deserve to kick it a little. The quantity of terror-mongering this year has been unprecedented. Issues all but vanished. In their place the public was subjected to an endless parade of horror tales about democracy’s end, “attacks” on ballot integrity, intimidation, disenfranchisement, foreign influence, “election denial,” and three bears of the new Homeland Security Goldilocks tale: misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation.

    All of which makes the prospect of watching returns tonight grimmer than usual, but we’re here to help, with drinking game rules for tonight’s broadcasts.”

    https://taibbi.substack.com/p/violence-democracy-itself-and-fettermans

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  5. Let the mutherfuker burn!'s avatar
    Let the mutherfuker burn!, on November 8, 2022 at 5:39 pm said:

    Goddamn!

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