According to the Census Bureau's Residential Vacancies and Homeownership report for Q2 2020, the homeownership rate increased by nearly 4 percentage points, to 67.9%.
NAR has analyzed the ability of mortgage holders to meet their mortgage payments by state, age group, and income.
As jobs recover, the fraction of purchase contract terminations has started to decline again.
Layoffs are still happening, with 1.4 million new filers for unemployment insurance, an increase of 110,000 from the prior week. This seems to be because of the re-closing of business activity in some states (such as no indoor dining).
Interest rates inched up slightly, to 3.02% on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, but they are essentially at near-record-low levels. The housing market is hot because of the lower mortgage rates, but the luxury market may remain soft due to jumbo loan issues.
The share of first-time buyers increased in March through June—right into the heart of the pandemic period and the surge in unemployment—and is now trending higher than the 29% to 32% average in past years since 2012.
At the national level, housing affordability showed signs of improvement in May 2020 compared to a year ago but fell compared to April.
In the week ending July 11, new unemployment claims decreased to 1.3 million, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's revised level.
Suburban office space acquisitions have been on the rise since 2017, but this trend may pick up as a result of social distancing and increased opportunity to work from home.
The retail property market is one of the most negatively affected commercial markets by the coronavirus pandemic and measures taken to contain it.
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