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Excerpt:
- U.S. housing affordability hampered as real estate values soar, mortgage rates remain above 5%
- Major home building stocks exhibit some upward momentum
- Traders should stand guard for volatility this week as two major companies in the ITB ETF report quarterly numbers
The National Association of Realtors publishes a monthly Housing Affordability Index. It measures how easy or difficult it is for the typical American family to purchase a home at today’s real estate prices and mortgage rates. A key variable is average income. As you might imagine, affordability today is downright awful. Surging mortgage rates, which moved from less than 4% late last year to more than 6% at times over the last two months, coupled with still-rising home values, have priced out many would-be first-time buyers. Goldman Sachs issued its own housing affordability update earlier this month that showed the national market is the priciest in 25 years.