National Housing Market Indicators Release for Q1 2018

Key-takeaways for this National Housing Market Indicators briefing include:

• The national home purchase market remained strong in 2018: Q1.
  • For the four quarters ending in 2018:Q1, 6.35 million sales transactions were reported.
  • Sales transactions increased 0.5 percent in the first quarter compared to a year ago, marking the 14th consecutive quarter of such increases.
• This came despite a 7.3% year-over-year jump in FHFA’s national house price index during the first quarter of 2018.
• The current house price boom is about 6 years old.
  • This boom is driven by too much money (demand) chasing too few properties (supply).
  • When the market is supply constricted (a seller’s market), credit easing is likely to become capitalized in price.
• While FHA, Fannie, Freddie, and the VA are all been pro-cyclically supporting the boom through credit easing, Fannie’s recent credit easing efforts have been breathtaking.
• Historically, higher debt-to-income ratios (DTIs) have enabled and extended housing booms. The same is happening again today.

Please find data and additional materials from our monthly call below. If you would like to receive invitations to our monthly update calls, please email [email protected].
Data
Methodology

Presentation materials:

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