Intriguing numbers from our friends at Wells Fargo. Mortgage rates are one of the things really driving market velocity in the islands.

• Existing home sales rose 4.3% in October, its fifth consecutive monthly increase. The seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 6.85 million sales in October is 28% above last year’s pace, when 5.34 million existing homes were sold. Year-to-date, sales are up 2.4% relative to 2019.1
• The median price of existing homes sold in October was $313,000, up 15.5% from the median price of homes sold in October 2019.
• At the end of the month, 1.42 million existing homes were on the market, a drop of 19.8% from the inventory a year earlier. At October’s sales rate, the unsold inventory would sell out within 2.5 months, an all-time low point for the months’ supply figure. In October 2019, months’ supply stood at 3.9 months.1
• Housing starts rose 4.9% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.53 million units. Starts numbered 1.29 million units last year.2
• Single-family housing starts had its strongest month since April 2007, reaching an annualized rate of 1.179 million units in October. Year-to-date, single-family starts are up 6.0% over last year.2
• Employment rose by 638,000 positions in October to a total payroll of 142.4 million. That’s 10 million, or 6.6%, fewer jobs than were held in February. The unemployment rate fell to 6.9% from 7.9% in September.3
• Industrial production rose 1.1% in October, recovering from September’s 0.4% setback. Production at the nation’s factories, utilities, and mines remains 5.6% below its February 2020 level.4
• The Consumer Price Index showed no change in October and a 1.2% increase over the past year. Over the last five years, the CPI has grown at an average annual rate of 1.8%.5
• The Core CPI measure, which strips out the volatile food and energy sectors, also held steady in October, with a 1.6% gain over the past twelve months.5
• Retail sales rose 0.3% in October, decelerating from gains of 1.4% in August and 1.6% in September. Retail sales are up 5.7% over year-ago levels. The tab at the nation’s restaurants and bars during October slid 0.1% from September and stands 14.2% below the level in October 2019.6
• In the week ending November 14, 742,000 workers filed initial claims for unemployment insurance. The increase of 31,000 claims from the previous week ended a string of four consecutive weekly declines. The August weekly average was just over 1 million workers.7
• The average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages in Freddie Mac’s survey hit another record low during the week ending November 19, dropping a dozen basis points to 2.72%. The rate has remained below 3.00% since the end of July and averaged 2.83% in October. All rates quoted have fees and points averaging 0.6% to 0.8% of the loan amount.

with the Fed stating interest rates are going to stay this low until 2023, buyers will be able to afford higher-priced homes than if the rates were higher!