00:00 Brad Smith
Shelter inflation rose three tenths of a percent in May, remaining stubborn even as inflation largely slowed in the past month with just a one tenth of a percent increase. Year-over-year, housing costs rising 3.9% compared to 2.4% for the full index. Here to break down the latest report, we’ve got Yahoo Finance senior housing reporter, Claire Boston. Claire, just take me into how you’re reading through these figures.
00:29 Claire Boston
Yeah, Brad. So once again, we have this world where shelter is really the main driver of inflation these days in what was otherwise a fairly benign report. So, what I’m looking at is owners’ equivalent rent. That is basically the homeowner’s housing cost. That was up three tenths of a percentage point, and then rents grew two tenths of a percentage point month over month. And you know, you can really see the impact of these higher housing costs when you look at that year over year figure. You know, as you mentioned, across the board prices are up 2.4%, but then shelter is up 3.9%. The only place that we really saw any relief in May was in that away from home housing, so that’s your hotels, your Airbnb, and that was down by about a tenth of a point. So, you know, really no good news here if you are a renter or homeowner, your costs are still going up.
01:24 Brad Smith
We also got the latest mortgage application data this morning. How is housing demand holding up right now?
01:32 Claire Boston
Yeah, I mean, it’s super interesting because housing is still really expensive, but we are starting to see mortgage applications improve a little bit. They were up 12.5% across the board this week. That includes both refies and purchases. Purchases were up about 10% and refies were up 15%. And what I think is interesting here is mortgage rates have been holding pretty steady. So, what we think is going on here is just, you know, some buyers finally responding to the fact that we have more inventory on the market, they have more to choose from. You know, it’s that peak summer home buying season. You know, we’ll have to see if this holds, though.
02:12 Brad Smith
And finally, this one hit the inbox too. A recent report from Point2 Homes found that renters actually outnumber owners in an increasing number of suburbs here. What’s behind this trend?
02:25 Claire Boston
Yeah, they they found, I think, 203 metro areas where there are now more suburban renters versus homeowners. And a lot of what is going on here is this really tough buy versus rent math. With those 7% mortgage rates, a lot of people are looking at what they can afford to buy versus what they can afford to rent, seeing they could rent a much bigger house and they’re going that way. And you know, we often think of renters as kind of those city people and then you buy and you move to the suburbs. But people are looking at that number and they’re saying, hey, you know what? I’m going to move to the suburbs, I want that extra space, but I’ll keep renting. And when you look at where this is happening, it’s a lot in the Sunbelt markets, those cities in Texas, places where builders have been really active, and builders have actually just been building homes now with the intent of renting them out to those consumers.
03:19 Brad Smith
Claire, great to have you here with us today.
03:22 Claire Boston
Thank you.
发表回复