The share of those planning to buy household appliances over the next six months dropped to 41 percent, the smallest since September 2011, from 44.8 in March. The proportion planning to buy motor vehicles was the smallest in nine months.s intended to purchase a home. Some economists, however, cautioned against reading too much into the drop in buying plans.purchase plans with a grain of salt,” said Tim Quinlan, a senior economist at Wells Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina.
That skepticism also extended to home purchase plans. A separate report from the Commerce Department on Tday showed new home sales surged 9.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 683,000 units in March, the highest level since March 2022. New home sales are counted at the signing of a contract, making them a leading indicator of the housing market, though they can be volatile on a month-to-month basis. Buyers have been taking advantage of any dip in mortgage rates to purchase homes.
The average rate on the popular 30-year mortgage, which hit a peak of 7.03 percent in late 2022, was mostly lower in March, according to data from mortgage finance agency Freddie Mac.uesThe S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller national home price index, covering all nine. census divisions, rose 0.2 percent month-on-month in February after adjusting for seasonal fluctuations. That followed a 0.2 percent fall in January.
“The housing markets continue to vary across regions and price tiers, but lower mortgage rates and low inventories have been helpful in providing the floor for prices in markets where prices seemed to have nosedived following mortgage rate surge,” said Selma Hepp, chief economist at CoreLogic. “Home prices nationally have bottomed out.”