Remote Work Fueled Half of U.S. Home-Price Spike During the Pandemic, Economists Say
The evolution of remote work will play a role in determining future home-price growth, according to a report from NBER.
May 19, 2022 2 MIN
The evolution of remote work will play a role in determining future home-price growth, according to a report from NBER.
Homebuilder confidence declined to a nearly two-year low in May as higher mortgage rates discouraged buyers and inflation resulted in more expensive material costs for builders.
Soaring inflation rates along with elevated housing prices weighed on the minds of Americans.
The U.S. unemployment rate held steady at 3.6% last month as the gain in payrolls beat economists' expectations.
The Fed increased its benchmark rate by half a percentage point and laid out a plan to reduce its balance sheet to fight inflation.
The co-called “core PCE,” the Fed's favored inflation measure that excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 5.2% in March from a year earlier, slowing from February's pace.
Gross domestic product in the first quarter fell 1.2% from a year earlier, the first contraction since the beginning of the pandemic, as Covid-19 infections surged.
The world’s largest economy probably will expand 3.1% in 2022, the second-fastest pace in 17 years, Goldman Sachs economists said in a forecast.
“A reprieve in gas prices was immediately recognized by consumers,” Wells Fargo economists said.
The so-called core reading of the consumer price index, stripping out volatile energy and food prices, showed a glimmer of good news, economists said.
The Fed plans to reduce its balance sheet more aggressively than the last time it ended a bond-buying program, according to minutes released on Wednesday.
A critical measure of U.S. inflation surged to the highest level since Ronald Reagan was president as global supply chains snarled by the pandemic fueled price increases.
With factories in several provinces in China shuttered by a growing number of Omicron infections, shortages of building materials in the U.S. could get worse.
Homebuilders are facing several challenges, including construction costs rising 20% over the past 12 months, said Robert Dietz, NAHB’s chief economist.
About a quarter of respondents cited the Russian invasion of Ukraine when asked about their economic outlook, the survey said.
The CPI data bolsters the Federal Reserve’s plan to begin raising its benchmark rate next week for the first time in three years.
The evolution of remote work will play a role in determining future home-price growth, according to a report from NBER.
The pace of inflation, one of the key drivers of mortgage rates, eased in August as reduced demand resulting from a resurgence of Covid-19 infections offset some of the supply-chain bottlenecks created by the pandemic.
"Red-hot demand for workers" will send U.S. jobless rate tumbling, the economists said.
Consumer confidence fell in November to the lowest level in a decade as inflationary concerns weighed on the mindsets of Americans.
