Skip to main content

Affordability continues to be a problem for the homebuilding industry. A slowdown in single-family starts through most of the year, combined with affordability that has started to decline again, even with mortgage rates at their lowest level since 2016, could be a warning bell for the second half of the year.

Many have long-awaited a wave of millennial-buying of new and existing homes, but family formation is still trailing historic norms. Just this week, the New York Fed described US home sales as “anemic”, among other adjectives, and new survey data suggests that could be a lasting condition in the housing market if key data points continue trending downward.

To read this Market Insight, you’ll need to  sign in

If you don’t have a subscription,  sign up or start a free trial .