Builders broke ground on 1.6 million homes in 2021, a 16% jump from a year earlier and the most since 2006, according to a government report.
The retreat in affordability came as the median U.S. home price rose to $353,900 in November, the highest ever recorded for the month.
Homebuilders' confidence declined in January, reversing four months of gains, as construction companies grappled with shortages of workers and materials.
Consumer confidence fell this month to nearly a 10-year low as Americans on tight budgets struggled with inflation.
This week’s jump in mortgage rates shrank the pool of eligible borrowers who would benefit from a refi to the lowest level since 2019, Black Knight said.
The average U.S. rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage jumped by almost a quarter of a percentage point this week, Freddie Mac said.
The Fed's signal last week that it was getting ready to shrink its balance sheet was a "big surprise" to the financial markets, a Schwab report said.
December’s 12-month gain in consumer prices was the largest since June 1982, according to Labor Department data released Wednesday.
Less than 2% of requests to correct errors on consumer records maintained by Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion resulted in corrections in 2020, down from 25% in 2019, the report said.
The strength of the labor market in the closing weeks of 2021 probably points to a Fed rate hike as early as March, Wells Fargo economists said.
