New home lot supply shows growth, index shows
The supply of single-family vacant lots grew in the three-month period between July and September, according to data from Zonda's New Home Lot Supply Index.
All told, the index came in at 73.2 at the end of the third quarter. That's a 27% increase from the previous year.
Big picture: the data adds to growing evidence that the United States housing supply is becoming more balanced, even if slightly.
In the case of the index, this quarter's data marks the first time in eight years that the index is "on the verge of moving from significantly undersupplied to slightly undersupplied," said Ali Wolf, the chief economist at the homebuilder data platform.
“The shift in our LSI is more a function of demand than supply, though," Wolf added. "Builders are intentionally reducing housing starts to align with sluggish demand, which is slowing lot absorption.”
EXp reports more transactions even as agent count falls
One of the nation's largest brokerages, eXp Realty, said it saw more transactions in the third quarter, even as the firm lost agents.
On Wednesday, the brokerage reported its earnings for the three-month period between July and September. During that time, eXp saw 3% more transactions than the same time a year earlier. Sales volume also increased, rising 7% on a yearly basis.
At the same time, the brokerage said it lost 2% of its agents and brokers. Even so, leadership emphasized that attrition was mostly driven by unproductive agents exiting the field altogether, and they pointed to the teams of agents they added in the quarter.
"The majority of our departing agents continue to be our lowest producing cohort, and we’re retaining the highest producing agents, which are multiple times less likely to churn than our lower producing agents," Leo Pareja, CEO of the brokerage, said during a call with investors on Wednesday.
Consumer sentiment tanks as government shutdown drags on
Consumer sentiment fell to its lowest level in more than three years, barely missing the mark for its worst level ever, according to the University of Michigan Survey of Consumers released Friday.
So far, in November, the survey's index of consumer sentiment has plummeted nearly 30% from the same month a year earlier. Compared to October, sentiment was down 6%. The decline was led by a 17% drop in current personal finances and an 11% drop in year-ahead expected business conditions.
It's a trend that manifested across all ages, incomes and political affiliations as the government enters its sixth week of shutdown, the report said.
A second measure of consumer sentiment, collected by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, reported similar findings on Friday.
Overall, the survey revealed that perceptions of household financial situations had deteriorated compared to a year ago, while expectations for the year ahead also indicated that more households expected to be worse off financially one year from now.