Last month I mentioned the spread between new-home and existing-home inventory. In keeping with that theme, we are starting to see real evidence of producer-inputs becoming more expensive – see here for charts on lumber, concrete, and steel. These costs are a real component of inflation, so we will watch them with interest.
I’ve also mentioned affordability concerns. It’s fair to note that homeownership rates recently hit a multi-year high. But it will be interesting to see if the weakening of incentives in the tax code and rising mortgage rates offset the trend of more-available credit and household appetite for debt.
Looking to our “Movers, moving” index, as you would expect the numbers are moving up with the longer days and higher temps of Spring. We saw 146 transactions that meet our subjective criteria in April. See attached.