Weekly Market Observations - February 19, 2025

Here’s Our Weekly Market Observations :

Economy

🔼 Inflation spikes with January CPI above expectations up 0.5% MOM and 3% YOY

🔼 Wholesale prices above expectations with PPI up 0.4% MOM and 3.4% YOY

🔼 January jobs report lower than expected with 143k jobs added

🔽 Unemployment in January falls to 4%

↔️ The Fed leaves rates unchanged in January

Housing Sales

🔽 Home resales in 2024 drop to a near 30 year low

🔼 December resales up 4.2% MOM and 9.3% YOY

🔼 December resale prices up 6% YOY to $404,400

🔼 December existing home inventory increased from 3.1 to 3.3 months

Housing Construction (in 2024)

🔼 Home construction costs reached a record high

🔼 Total new housing starts decreased 3.9%

🔼 Single-family starts increased 6.5%

🔼 Single-family completions up 2.2%

🔼 Multifamily starts dropped 25%

🔼 Multifamily completions up 35%

Mortgage

🔽 Average 30-year fixed mortgage: 6.87%