Latest / Markets with Megan: A Quick Financial Markets Update / 049: The Housing Market's Complex Challenges

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049: The Housing Market's Complex Challenges · Markets with Megan: A Quick Financial Markets Update

• 0:04
  Megan Horneman: Hello, this is Megan Horneman, the Chief Investment Officer at Verdence Capital Advisors, coming to you today with our Markets With Megan, we're going to talk about the housing market and we've got a lot of information this week about the health of the housing market.
• 0:16
  Megan Horneman: First of all, home builder sentiment.
• 0:19
  Megan Horneman: That dropped pretty sharply in the month of August.
• 0:22
  Megan Horneman: It's now at a five-month low.
• 0:24
  Megan Horneman: When you look at prospective buyer traffic, that's basically a standstill.
• 0:28
  Megan Horneman: If you look at sentiment on both the present condition of the housing market as well as future expectations from home builders, that both fell to the lowest level we've seen this year.
• 0:41
  Megan Horneman: We also got building permits and housing starts.
• 0:44
  Megan Horneman: Building permits did rise, which that's a good leading indicator, but starts fell to the lowest level that we've seen since the pandemic.
• 0:52
  Megan Horneman: When you look at existing home sales, they're dangerously close to falling below that psychological four million pace.
• 1:00
  Megan Horneman: That's an annual pace.
• 1:01
  Megan Horneman: They're right above that right now, but you are looking at a pretty big decline there in existing home sales as well.
• 1:08
  Megan Horneman: So why are we seeing this?
• 1:10
  Megan Horneman: It's no surprise.
• 1:11
  Megan Horneman: Interest rates are higher.
• 1:12
  Megan Horneman: The mortgage rate is now back above a 7.3%.
• 1:16
  Megan Horneman: That's the highest level we've seen since 2000.
• 1:19
  Megan Horneman: Recovery remains low in existing homes as people don't want to give up the low mortgage rates they've had before.
• 1:25
  Megan Horneman: So you right now have this kind of combination of events here that is working against the housing market.
• 1:32
  Megan Horneman: It's people not wanting to move and interest rates high for new home buyers.
• 1:36
  Megan Horneman: We'll keep an eye on the housing market and what that means for the economy.
• 1:39
  Megan Horneman: That's all we have today.
• 1:41
  Megan Horneman: If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to podcasts at verde nce dot com.
• 1:45
  Megan Horneman: Thank you.