Mortgage Rates Rise as Home Building Declines

Despite a drop in new home construction, permits for future building show a slight increase, indicating potential growth in the housing market.

Thirty-year mortgage rates jumped higher Wednesday—adding 20 basis points to rise to 7.24%. It's the highest average for 30-year rates since mid-December.
Building of new homes fell last month for the first time since October, government data showed on Thursday, on the back of a plunge in single-family construction.
For 2023, an estimated 1.4 million new housing units were started, a 9 percent decline from the previous year of more than 1.55 million units, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said.
Meanwhile, home building permits, which analysts say is a forward-looking indicator of future construction, rose slightly by nearly 2 percent in December, with single-family construction also jumping by 1.7 percent for the month.
The median sale price of a home in the U.S. for the week ending January 14 was 4.2 percent higher than a year ago at a little over $362,000, according to the latest data from real-estate platform Redfin, while the asking price shot up by more than 5 percent to more than $372,000.