Companies
As the market was expecting, the Fed raised interest rates another quarter point Wednesday afternoon, bringing the federal-funds rate to a range between 5.25% and 5.5%, a 22 year high. There will be eight weeks until the next Fed meeting.
Chairman Jay Powell said there is “uncertainty in the next meeting let alone next year.” Powell also said he believed they “have a shot” at a soft landing in the economy — the ability to achieve inflation reduction without high levels of job loss as has occurred in many past instances of tightening. We’ve been hearing this from some (not all) Wall Street economists more recently, but during the press conference Powell also revealed the independent staff at the Fed is now no longer forecasting a recession, given recent strength in the economy.
Asked directly about the housing market and the prospect of getting supply and demand back into balance, Powell said, citing the constraint of existing homes, “I think we have a ways to go to get back to balance” given that existing homeowners with low rate mortgages see “too much value in their mortgage,” keeping supply tight and continuing to pressure prices. On the other hand, Powell said, even in this rate environment there are a significant number of new buyers. “Hopefully,” Powell said, “more supply comes online” and “we are still living with through aftermath of the pandemic.”
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said high mortgage rates and low existing inventory led to another annual increase in new home purchases in June. Mortgage applications for new home purchases jumped 26.1% in June from the same period last year, according to the MBA’s builder application survey. Compared with the prior month, applications dropped by 5%, MBA said.
Housing Wire reported that construction of single-family homes specifically designed as rentals is booming. However, there are several states bucking that trend due to regulatory constraints that make investment less attractive.
The shift in commercial real estate since the pandemic — decreased office occupancy and retail activity coupled with higher interest rates — has put the CRE sector under continued strain. That stress has caused banks and other lenders to tighten their standards for new loans and scrutinize existing ones. Reuters reports that big banks are increasing loan loss reserves for commercial real estate although their exposure is relatively low. “While regional banks carry the greatest exposure to the (CRE sector,” Reuter said, “second quarter earnings show that a number of big banks have prepared for potential defaults, primarily on office loans.”
Mortgage and housing trade groups meanwhile this week objected to the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) proposal to designate nonbank servicers and others as systemically-important financial institutions. MBA said in a letter response that FSOC’s proposed interpretive guidance and a revised analytical framework “signal a renewed effort by the Biden Administration and federal financial services regulators to target non-bank financial companies – including non-bank mortgage servicers – for SIFI designation and subject them to Federal Reserve prudential oversight.”
MBA also reported that Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) may vote Thursday on the interagency proposed changes to capital requirements for banks with assets of $100 billion or more, which may include an increase in residential mortgage capital requirements for large depository banks. “This is disconcerting,” MBA said, “as large increases in capital standards will likely lead to a shift in where mid-sized and regional banks will focus their core businesses and reduce credit availability for all types of lending, including for single-family, multifamily, and commercial real estate.”
It’s a busy week for housing data. The National Association of Homebuilder’s (NAHB) reported its sentiment index rose by 1 point to 56, the seventh straight month of gains and the highest level since June 2022 (> 50 is considered positive) as low supply of existing homes for sale continues to drive demand for new construction. Housing starts and building permits are due out, along with existing home sales, jobless claims, and leading U.S. economic indicators.
The Federal Reserve released the results of its consumer survey, revealing that the rejection rate for people applying for credit jumped to 21.8% in June, up from 17.3% in February, the highest level in five years. Credit applications it should be noted, however, have fallen overall the past 12 months to 40.3%, the lowest since October 2020 and down from 40.9% in February, according to the survey. Nevertheless, big banks have said they are setting aside additional capital for loan losses as credit card balances rise and delinquency rates on credit cards and other retail loans continue to rise. Broken down, the Fed survey revealed the rejection rate for auto loans increased the most, to 14.2 percent from 9.1 percent in February, a new series high. For credit cards, credit card limit increase requests, mortgages, and mortgage refinance applications, rates rose to “21.5 percent, 30.7 percent, 13.2 percent, and 20.8 percent, respectively.”
Even as the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage neared the 7% mark, preliminary results from the University of Michigan survey indicate consumer sentiment rose 13% in July, which if it holds would be the second straight month of improvement and the largest over-month gain since 2006 and its highest level since September 2021.
Black Knight’s analysis suggests a bifurcated market. Andy Walden, vice president of enterprise research and strategy, said “The housing market has been reheating as we approach the traditional tail end of the homebuying season.” But credit continues to tighten, Waldron said, and in a constrained market, which has purchases taking a larger share of a reduced origination market, “continued economic uncertainty, tightening credit and affordability concerns have all helped to skew the market toward higher-credit borrowers. In fact, the average credit score among purchase locks hit a record high in June.” “Likewise, the average purchase price rising for the seventh straight month while the average loan amount remained flat suggests lower loan-to-value ratios as well” Waldron said.
According to an analysis by Realtor.com, in this interest rate environment and with the Fed likely to tighten further, they expect home sales to decline by 15.8% for the year, as many potential buyers wait for rates to drop before they are willing to look for a new home. Realtor.com says would-be sellers with existing low rates on their mortgages are holding off, unwilling to enter a market where they would pay a higher rate. Realtor.com also changed its outlook for prices: After forecasting a price rise earlier this year, they now expect a gradual fall in the second half of the year.
Also of note, issuance of agency mortgage-backed securities rebounded strongly in the second quarter of 2023 following nine consecutive quarters of slumping production.
With U.S. 30-year fixed mortgage rates touching an average of 6.81% this week, the highest yet for 2023 according to Freddie Mac’s mortgage market survey, and despite tightening credit and signs consumers are already pulling back, low unemployment is creating the likelihood consumers can and will continue to spend over the next two quarters, keeping the prospect of a soft landing alive. That said, corporate earnings in the coming weeks will give us a better indication of whether that more optimistic narrative will be disrupted by multifaceted pressures and risks presented by persistent core inflation, higher interest rates, smaller bank liquidity concerns, and commercial office space contraction.
Citing the low unemployment figures and relatively strong job openings, UBS says they believe the US consumer can continue to spend through 2023, citing household DTI at 40 year lows, many households with debt fixed at low rate mortgages, and household wealth doubling in last decade, creating $10 trillion in wealth. With home prices up 40% from pre-Covid levels, UBS said even though savings is down recently it will likely remain positive through 2023 and into 2024, assisted by real wage growth (though also trending down) and the fact that lower income wages have been growing faster than higher income — all complicating the Fed’s job but nevertheless offering a less painful storyline for the rest of the year.
MBA Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni still forecasts a slowing economy over the next two quarters with a recovery in early 2024, nevertheless he expects the Fed will tighten again later this month: “The June employment report reinforces that forecast,” Fratantoni said. “While job growth and wage growth are trending down, both are still well above the pace that would be consistent with the Federal Reserve’s inflation target. We now expect that the FOMC will raise the federal funds target another 25 basis points at its July meeting.”
Goldman Sachs’ chief US economist believes the rebalancing of the labor market, with declining job openings and increased labor supply (closing a large gap that has existed between demand for labor and diminished workforce participation) without increasing unemployment is healthy for the economy and means less inflationary wage pressure.
Although core inflation has remained stubbornly high, near term inflation expectations and business inflation expectations have both moderated. Alleviation of the worst of pandemic supply chain shortages is also helping to bring down inflation, and relief in commodity prices are not believed to have passed through yet, Goldman Sachs said. An increased supply of rental units in housing, notably, has also not worked its way into inflation numbers either. Shelter is the largest category in inflation by weighting, and the Goldman Sachs team believes it will soon take an estimated 2-2.5% off the CPI, forecasting inflation to be down to the high 3s by end of year, the low to mid 2s next year, before achieving the Fed target 2% by 2025.
Amidst somewhat surprising signs of resilience this year in the U.S. economy, Fed watchers expect two more rate hikes this year to combat stubbornly high core inflation rates. Goldman Sachs Research’s chief U.S. economist believes a healthy labor market rebalancing that includes a large decline in job openings without an increase in unemployment is a positive sign for the potential for the U.S. to orchestrate a softer landing.
Although initial jobless claims and layoff rates are ticking up, the labor story has a positive side to it — wage growth appears to be coming down, dampening its inflationary pressures, the Goldman Sachs Research group said. Additionally, supply chain problems that recently vexed the economy are continuing to heal, leaving room for rebuilding of inventories that should be deflationary.
Within housing, the dichotomy between existing and new homes construction continues. The National Association of Realtors said existing home sales fell 20.4 percent year-over-year in May, the large annual decline in 11 years. MBA reports that after the 2021 market had set records for purchase ($1.86 trillion) and refinance originations ($2.57 trillion), originations fell to an estimated $2.2 trillion in 2022, and are forecasted to fall further to $1.8 trillion this year. Fannie Mae lowered its 2023 Single-Family Originations Forecast to $1.59 Trillion.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index reported that “solid demand, low existing inventory, and improving supply chain efficiency shifted builder confidence into positive territory in June for the first time in 11 months.” Home construction surged in May and prices of new homes have ticked up, even with interest rates at a 15-year high, surprising some analysts.
Zillow recently issued a report that suggesting there is a deficit of 4.3 million homes, with “roughly 8 million individuals or families who lived in another person’s home in 2021 and just 3.7 million homes for rent or sale.”
We are awaiting the Fed Board’s decision on interest rates Wednesday afternoon, when they are expected to pause, albeit with a hawkish tone, signaling they may not be done with rate hikes this year, and in fact lean toward keeping rates higher for longer to quell lingering inflation, before deciding to go lower late in the year.
As we’ve discussed here, the backdrop has been an economic dichotomy — a strong first quarter, followed with what appears to be even stronger second quarter amidst signals (credit tightening, profit margins tightening, consumers tightening, hiring slowing notwithstanding the strong May) the economy will slow later this year. We may not have seen the last of the bank failures either — while the Fed’s lending facility has calmed the outflow of deposits from smaller and regional banks, the longer these rates stay higher, the more pressure we will see.
Adding to those signals was a report from Attom indicating increased foreclosure activity in May, resuming what it said is “a slow climb back toward levels seen prior to the pandemic.” Meanwhile, Redfin reported 33.4% of home purchases in April were all-cash, reflecting tight supply and reduced affordability for mortgage borrowers, almost the highest share in nine years and up from 30.7% in April 2022. Median down payments were down in April, with the typical down payment of $52,500, down 18% year-over-year, the second-biggest drop since May 2020. Down payments have been falling year-over-year since November.
Redfin said FHA loans “were up as a percentage of purchases, at about 16.4% in April. That’s a notable increase from 10.4% a year earlier. They’ve become more common as high mortgage rates have cooled the market–FHA loans were losing out to buyers with all-cash or conventional loans during the stretch of highest competition.”
The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that mortgage credit availability declined in May, the third consecutive month and the lowest reading since January 2013 “as the industry continued to see more consolidation and reduced capacity as a result of the tougher market.”
Although stress in the banking sector continues in this rate environment, total borrowing from the Fed’s three emergency lending programs declined from $288.7 billion the week prior to $285.7 billion last week (the figure peaked in March at $343.7 billion in the wake of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse). Borrowing from the Fed’s Bank Term Funding Program rose slightly to $93.6 billion from $91.9 billion in the prior week, while borrowing from the Fed discount window declined to $3.97 billion from $4.2 billion in the prior week, MarketWatch reported. It continues to point to tightening credit and consumers who are expected to pull back.
Meanwhile, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported that commercial mortgage delinquency rates increased for every major capital source during the first quarter, “foreshadowing additional strains that are likely to work their way through the system,” MBA said. As we’ve discussed here on a few occasions, and MBA summarizes: “For most capital sources, delinquency rates remain low by historical standards. But with 16 percent of outstanding loan balances facing loan maturities this year, the first edge of properties is just beginning to be pushed to adjust to today’s markets – with higher interest rates, uncertain property values, and questions about some property fundamentals. As they do, delinquency rates are likely to continue to rise.”
The labor market, and the consumer, however, continue to spend during this second quarter. We learned Friday that U.S. employers added 339,000 jobs in May, and the numbers were revised upward for March and April, 52,000 and 41,000 respectively. Mike Fratantoni, Chief Economist at MBA: “Job growth was stronger than anticipated in May, with growth averaging 341,000 per month over the last 12 months, adding to the momentum thus far in 2023.”
“Thus far” might be the operative term, perhaps — as credit tightens, surveys are indicating consumers are beginning to feel increased pressure. A survey conducted by the BMO Financial Group found two-thirds of those looking to buy a home say that current high mortgage rates are keeping them from doing so. The Morgan Stanley US economics team, which predicts a “soft landing” because of the labor picture that should allow the Fed to achieve its 2% inflation target without diving unemployment significantly higher, conducted a survey that found consumers, except in groceries and household products, fully expect to pull back their discretionary spending later this year, and in fact Morgan Stanley sees that pull back already beginning. “Interest rates on new consumer loan products,” Sarah Wolfe of the team noted, “hit 20 to 30-year highs, raising overall debt service costs and forcing consumers to reduce purchases of interest sensitive goods.”
In remarks last week, Fed Governor Philip Jefferson said he believes “the overwhelming majority of banks have strong balance sheets with limited leverage, high levels of loss-absorbing capacity, and healthy liquidity. Moreover, household and business balance sheets are generally strong… While the resilience of the financial sector will limit the spillovers from recent events, I expect those strains to lead to a further tightening in credit supply from banks that will weigh on economic activity.”
The Wall Street Journal reports that after the average city office occupancy rates surpassed 50% earlier this year for the first time since the pandemic began, “many landlords viewed this milestone as a sign that employees were finally resuming their former work habits.” Office usage rates have barely budged since, as most companies have settled into a hybrid work strategy “that shows little sign of fading,” the Journal wrote.
Meanwhile, total consumer debt hit $17.05 trillion, an increase of nearly $150 billion, or 0.9% during the January-to-March period, the New York Federal Reserve reported Monday, up about $2.9 trillion from the pre-Covid period ended in 2019, though the level of those taking on new housing-related debt dropped sharply, the New York Fed said.
The Fed said Thursday its emergency lending to banks rose to $92.4 billion in the week ended May 10, from $81.1 billion last week. Bank borrowing from the Fed peaked at $164.8 billion in mid-March. Bank loans from the Fed’s emergency Bank Term Funding Program totaled $83.1 billion, up from $75.8 billion in the prior week. Banks borrowing from the Fed’s traditional discount window rose to $9.3 billion from $5.3 billion last week.
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) is urging the Federal Housing Finance Agency to delay implementing proposed changes to the Enterprise Regulatory Capital Framework, saying they “oppose strongly” any risk-weighting of re-securitizations issued by one of the GSEs that contain securities issued by the other GSE. In a letter to FHFA MBA said they support the changes in the proposal that would reduce the risk weight and credit conversion factor for commingled securities form 20% and 100% to 5% and 50%, respectively.” MBA says “The existing 20% risk weighting resulted in the implementation of a 50-basis-point commingling fee last year.”
MBA also expressed concerns that implementing a change to capital framework “ahead of the transition to the bi-merge credit report requirement could artificially raise scores for some borrowers.” It then recommends that FHFA delay implementing the change and perform additional analysis, and then report any findings “as part of the new credit score implementation process.”
Last week FHFA announced a rescission of the controversial LLPA charge for DTI ratios over 40%. Yesterday, FHFA also issued an RFI seeking feedback on the single-family guarantee fee and LLPA pricing framework. Comments are due by August 14.
Both Warren Buffet and Jamie Dimon said in the days following the JPMorgan take-over of First Republic that the banking crisis is over, two pretty good sources on banking stress. It doesn’t mean there won’t be more bank failures—it seems inevitable there will be in the months ahead with the Fed tightening another quarter point last week putting several more under increased pressure. But it may mean from their vantage point banks with the interest rate exposure and those likely to feel the most pressure are small enough that consolidation is not going to cause contagion. It also means, however, that credit conditions will continue to tighten, slowing the economy. With the continued robust consumer activity and strong employment, however, that expected slowing appears slightly delayed and/or softened.
The banking credit tightening is certainly part of the story here because it may give the Fed room to stick with the plan to pause (in June) in order to observe whether recent rate moves are having the intended effect on inflation. The Federal Reserve survey of bank loan officers, out Monday, showed that credit conditions for U.S. business and households continued to tighten in the first months of this year.
In housing, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported that mortgage credit availability fell in April to its lowest level since 2013, “matching the tightening in broader credit conditions stemming from recent banking sector challenges and an uncertain economic outlook,” Joel Kan, MBA Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist said.
MBA’s SVP and Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni perhaps summarized the current status well following the Fed statement last week: “We expect that the Fed will be ‘data dependent,’ and certainly would react to any renewed increase in inflation, but [the statement made by Chairman Powell] is consistent with a plan to pause rates at this level. Inflation is likely to trend down over the course of the year, particularly as weakness in the rental market begins to be reflected in the inflation numbers. In the near term, tighter credit conditions will slow the pace of economic activity. The housing sector is already operating under tight credit, so we don’t expect this headwind to outweigh the benefits from somewhat lower mortgage rates. The housing market is likely pulling the economy out of this slowdown, as it typically does.”
Activity at the Fed’s discount window and the Bank Term Lending Program rose in the past week, with banks borrowing $73 billion from the window and $82 billion from the program, up slightly and continuing to stay at high levels. With the seizure of First Republic Bank over the weekend and JPMorgan picking it up early Monday, pressure continues on banks that are similarly exposed to interest rate risk and risk of deposit flight. The Federal Home Loan Banks said advances rose 28% at the end of the first quarter from the close of 2022, reaching a record $1 trillion during the March banking crisis, slowing toward the end of the month.
Following the First Republic deal, shares of a few other banks — Comerica, PacWest Bancorp, Western Alliance Bank and Zions Bank — all sank in Tuesday trading. Eyes and ears will be on whether these potential failures cause dissenting votes Wednesday within the FOMC.
First Republic was the 14th largest bank at the end of 2022 and is now the second largest bank failure in history after Washington Mutual in 2008, which JPMorgan also acquired. Of note here is that JPMorgan will share a loss with the FDIC on loans, with the FDIC reportedly taking 80%. Commercial real estate loans were reportedly a relatively small portion (6%) of First Republic’s loan base. The residential mortgage loans are believed to be low interest, low LTV loans to good credit borrowers. Nearly 60 percent of First Republic’s loans were single-family mortgages, according to their most recent annual report.
The Wall Street Journal reports that home builders are enjoying stronger-than-expected business this spring, capitalizing on the recent fall in mortgage rates and the shortage of existing homes for sale. Active listings in March stood at roughly half of where they were four years earlier, according to realtor.com, in part because higher mortgage rates made many homeowners reluctant to sell and give up their current low rates, the Journal said. WSJ said newly built homes made up “about one-third of single-family homes for sale in March, according to data from the Commerce Department and the National Association of Realtors. The proportion of newly built homes reached nearly 35% in December, a record in data going back to mid-1982 and up from a historical norm of 10% to 20%.”
There continues to be a conundrum in US markets: Q1 was very strong for consumer spending, above pre-pandemic levels, substantially. There has been decent, though slowing, payroll data — the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that total non-farm payroll employment rose by 236,000 in March. It was the smallest increase in more than two years, but it was enough to push the unemployment rate down to 3.5 percent.
Still, there are real signs of wear and tear on the economy. A Black Knight analysis found more than 11% of borrowers who took out loans to buy houses last year had properties worth less than the debt on them in February. According to Inside Mortgage Finance, production of agency mortgage-backed securities fell to its lowest level in nine years in the first quarter of 2023.
We’ve discussed here the vulnerabilities of regional banks given exposure to the commercial sector, with retail hurting and office space values falling amidst higher rates and post-covid shifts in remote work. Regional banks with the weakest balance sheets and heretofore unrealized losses, even with the Fed facility lending at par, continue to give investors concern. Whether that is powerful enough to cause contagion is difficult to determine, but recent history makes it easy to see how another bank failure could re-ignite flows out of regionals with high levels of underwater loans and assets that have been propped up by lower rates (soon needing to be refinanced in a higher rate environment).
Corporate balance sheets are in better shape than they were prior to the global financial crisis which will help them weather earnings declines from underutilized office space, to a point, but we can expect defaults to rise and banks to continue to feel the pinch of lower interest margins and reduced income from lower loan volumes.