Morning Report: Consumer sentiment rises

Posted on February 10, 2023 by Brent Nyitray

Vital Statistics:

 LastChange
S&P futures4,073-18.50
Oil (WTI)79.030.92
10 year government bond yield 3.69%
30 year fixed rate mortgage 6.26%

Stocks are lower this morning on no real news. Bonds and MBS are down.

Consumer sentiment rose in February, according to the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey. The strong jobs report last week probably contributed, however gasoline prices are a factor too. Unfortunately for those who want the Fed out of the way, inflationary expectations increased, rising to 4.2% from 3.9% in January. Longer-term inflationary expectations were steady at 2.9%. To put the current numbers into perspective, we are about 22% below the historical average since 1978.

Mortgage credit availability contracted slightly in January, according to the MBA. “Mortgage credit availability was essentially unchanged in January and remained close to its lowest level since 2013,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist. “Similar to December 2022, the availability of credit has been driven lower by declining originations and shrinking industry capacity as lenders have streamlined their operations to cope with lower volumes. Additionally, as mortgage rates declined over the past month, the share of adjustable-rate mortgages has fallen – consistent with a slight pullback in ARM offerings in this month’s results. However, there has been a revival in mortgage application activity over the past month and our forecast is for rates to continue to decline and housing activity – including home sales and new home construction – to gradually pick up as we approach the spring homebuying season. These developments could potentially change the credit availability landscape in the months ahead.”

Rental growth grew only 2% in January, according to Redfin. This was the slowest increase in 20 months. “We’re watching closely to see whether rents start falling year over year. That would be a welcome relief for renters  because it hasn’t happened since the onset of the pandemic,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. “If rents do start falling on a year-over-year basis, it will mean that renters have more room to negotiate. It may also prompt more landlords to sell their properties because they’re no longer getting a good return on their investment.”

There is a seasonal aspect to rental growth, which you can see in the chart above. Rents tend to bottom in January-February and then accelerate as the Spring Selling Season begins. It happened in 2020 and 2021, but not 2022. Historically, rents have lagged home price growth by 21 months, so we should probably see another pickup into the spring.

Filed under: Economy |

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10 Responses

  1. jnc4p's avatar
    jnc4p, on February 10, 2023 at 9:34 am said:

    NoVA, you may find this of interest:

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  2. Let the mutherfuker burn!'s avatar
    Let the mutherfuker burn!, on February 10, 2023 at 3:41 pm said:

    Holy shit! I had no idea it was real!

    Makes the movie even more awesome!! The best of the Roger Moore era, certainly.

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  3. jnc4p's avatar
    jnc4p, on February 11, 2023 at 10:33 am said:

    For the people who still live in Westchester:

    “Hochul faces an ‘uprising’ over her plan to build new housing in NYC suburbs

    The governor is pushing a plan to mandate more housing in the counties she lost in the last election.”

    https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/11/hochul-faces-uprising-housing-plan-00080949

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    • Brent Nyitray's avatar
      Brent Nyitray, on February 11, 2023 at 11:08 am said:

      Where they overreach is that they want multi-family mixed in with single family. It isn’t good enough for for an apartment building to be constructed in commercial zoning. They want you to be able to subdivide your McMansion into a 4-unit.

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    • Brent Nyitray's avatar
      Brent Nyitray, on February 12, 2023 at 8:49 pm said:

      USMC Colonel.

      that says everything about the type of officer that got promoted during the obama years.

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    • jnc4p's avatar
      jnc4p, on February 13, 2023 at 10:48 am said:

      This is a close competitor for being the most ignorant about firearms while also participating in the regulation of them.

      “WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette drew national criticism Wednesday for remarks made at a public forum in which she said banning high-capacity in ammunition magazines would be effective in reducing gun violence because “the bullets will have been shot and there won’t be any more available.”

      For years in Congress, DeGette has been the prime sponsor on a federal ban on high-capacity magazines.

      But despite the congresswoman’s claim, ammunition magazines can be reloaded with more bullets and can be reused hundreds of times.

      “These are ammunition, they’re bullets, so the people who have those now, they’re going to shoot them, so if you ban them in the future, the number of these high-capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time because the bullets will have been shot and there won’t be any more available,” she said at Tuesday’s forum, hosted by The Denver Post’s editorial board.”

      Inaccurate remarks on gun magazines put Rep. Diana DeGette under scrutiny

      Rep. Diana DeGette draws criticism for “pretty stupid” ammo-magazine comment

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