April showing signs of a pick-up in home sales beginning this spring driven by the recent encouraging employment reports, low mortgage rates and continued high homebuyer affordability.
Outlook Highlights:
- Unemployment declined for the fourth straight month to 8.8 percent, and net employment increased by 216,000 jobs.
- A projected 5 percent increase in 2011 home sales over 2010, on a calendar year basis.
- Despite weak and inconsistent monthly job gains for the real estate sector, real estate employment was up by 10,000 jobs since last November.
- Refinancing is likely to account for a much smaller share of loan applications later this year as borrowers who are "in-the-money" decrease and mortgage rates begin inching up.
- The share of adjustable-rate mortgages loans is projected to be 7 percent in 2011, compared to the 5 percent 2010 average in part because the level of fixed-rate mortgages rates are expected to rise relative to short-term interest rates.
