Existing-Home Sales in Sharp Decline

 The Mortgage Corner

I said last week that higher new home sales and rising homebuilders’ optimism foretell a strong summer sales season if builders and existing-home inventories don’t run out of housing stock.

The problem is not enough existing homes are for sale, hence the below-normal inventory of total homes for sale, which has spurred new-home construction. We know there is a tremendous housing shortage.

Total existing-home sales – completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops – slid 3.4% from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.28 million in April. Year-over-year, sales slumped 23.2% (down from 5.57 million in April 2022).

Calculated Risk

That’s a decline of more than one million existing homes sales in just one year.

Calculated Risk’s Bill McBride reported last week that private residential construction spending was down 10.0 percent annually. Non-residential spending is up 21.3 percent year-over-year (i.e., apartments) and public construction spending is up 15.0 percent year-over-year, which is keeping the real estate industry barely alive.

The Calculated Risk graph tell us why. As interest rates rose home sales declined. The sharp rise in interest mirrors the sharp decline in sales over the same time period—beginning January 2022 when everyone knew the Fed was in earnest about suppressing inflation.

There are 1.675 million units under construction, reports McBride, just 35 thousand below the all-time record of 1.710 million set in October 2022.

Of these, there are currently 977 thousand multi-family units under construction.  This is the highest level since September 1973, and close to the record of 994 thousand in 1973 (being built for the baby-boom generation).

For multi-family, construction delays are a significant factor because of supply shortages, such as of electrical equipment. The completion of these units should help to lower rents, which puts downward pressure on inflation. Rents comprise a large part of the retail inflation numbers.

"Home sales are bouncing back and forth but remain above recent cyclical lows," said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. "The combination of job gains, limited inventory and fluctuating mortgage rates over the last several months have created an environment of push-pull housing demand."

Total housing inventory² registered at the end of April was 1.04 million units, up 7.2 percent from March and 1.0 percent from one year ago (1.03 million), says the NAR. Unsold inventory sits at a 2.9-month supply at the current sales pace, up from 2.6 months in March and 2.2 months in April 2022, still much too low to satisfy the surging demand for more housing.

Econbrowser

The Econbrowser blog puts out an interesting graph that shows what is keeping economic growth from collapsing into recession territory. It’s the rising NFP (nonfarm payroll) number coupled with a surge in industrial production (pink line). Other sectors that the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) business cycle dating committee scrutinizes to call a recession—personal income, consumption, and Mfg. & trade sales—have stalled.

This gives a better picture of how much damage to economic growth and housing industry has been caused by the Fed’s battle with inflation; and what signs to look for in coming months of further declines that might trigger a recession call.

Harlan Green © 2023

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen

The Declining Treasury Yield Curve—Recession Looming?

Financial FAQs

We are basically at full employment with a 4.4 percent unemployment rate, which should tell us we are nearing the end of this growth cycle.

Econoday reports, “The total number of employed Americans, and this includes both the self-employed and those on payrolls, is 153.2 million and a new record. This total has been rising steadily since falling to a cycle low in December 2009 of 138.0 million. Doing the math here means that 15.2 million jobs have been added during this expansion. The upward slope has been steady and is showing no sign of letting up. The peak in the prior cycle was 146.7 million, hit in November 2007.”

Graph: Econoday

So how do we know we have reached a peak in growth? The National Bureau of Economic Research that tracks growth cycles tells us by using 4 economic indicators: including unemployment, real personal income and real GDP growth (less inflation), and industrial production. Those indicators have already surpassed their last peaks that were reached in 2007, so the question is how much higher can they go before they reach this cycle’s peak.

It is possible the economy may continue to grow with Congress and the White House politically deadlocked and unable to pass any stimulus spending, but that would mean the private sector starts spending more of their $4 trillion plus in unspent profits they have been hoarding, rather than wait for the tax cuts that Republicans have been promising. But don’t bet on that bridge to nowhere, as the saying goes.

On the NBER’s faq page, they define the beginning and end of recessions. “We identify a month when the economy reached a peak of activity and a later month when the economy reached a trough.
The time in between is a recession, a period when economic activity is contracting. The following period is an expansion. As of September 2010, when we decided that a trough had occurred in June 2009, the economy was still weak, with lingering high unemployment, but had expanded considerably from its trough 15 months earlier.”

So June 2009 was identified as the end of the Great Recession (the trough in activity), which began in December 2007 (its prior peak). Calculated Risk’s Bill McBride has followed those NBER recession indicators, and as of April, 2015, they have all exceeded their past highs.

I believe the most important indicator has been personal income, which exceeded its past peak in 2012, but has fluctuated a bit since then.

Graph: Calculated Risk

Employment is also important, but has tended to lag the other indicators in predicting a recession. It didn’t peak until several months into the Great Recession, but is now 2 percent above its last peak.

All four recession indicators are now above their pre-recession peaks. The problem now is we and the NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee aren’t sure that economic activity tops out until months later when the NBER sees a sustained drop in activity, as their 2010 example showed. This past quarter’s meager 0.7 percent GDP growth is still growth, by the way.

So another indicator that might indicate a looming slowdown is the decline in slope of the so-called Treasury Yield Curve, which shows the difference between short term rates regulated by the Federal Reserve, and long term fixed Treasury yields determined by the bond markets—such as the 10 and 30-year Treasuries.

The difference between those 2 yields is basically the profit margin made by lenders that have to borrow at short term rates and lend at the longer term interest rates. It is no longer as steep as it has been, which means lenders become more restrictive, which shrinks available credit, always a sign of slower growth.

So, if the Fed continues to raise short term rates, and because of market uncertainty or low inflation long term rates don't rise from their lows, then it could mean a looming recession.  But that is a big 'if'.

Harlan Green © 2017

Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen