Increasing tensions between North Korea and the U.S. are boosting Bond prices this morning as yields ease a bit across the globe. President Trump has imposed new sanctions and China has told their banks to stop doing business with North Korea. In response, Kim Jong Un is threatening to test fire a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean. The rise in Bonds are coming at the expense of the major Stock indexes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ are all trading lower this morning.
Freddie Mac reported this week that the housing market will remain relatively strong due in part to the strong labor market and low mortgage interest rates. Home sales are expected to rise modestly in 2018 to 1.33 million units, up from 1.22 million in 2017 with new home sales the primary driver. Freddie Mac says that home sales are expected to rise 2% from 2017 to 2018. “The economic environment remains favorable for housing and mortgage markets,” Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sean Becketti said.
Analytics firm CoreLogic reports that homeowners continue to see their equity rise in their homes, according to its Q2 2017 home equity analysis. CoreLogic analysis shows U.S. homeowners with mortgages, roughly 63% of all homeowners, have seen their home equity increase by a total of $766.1 billion since Q2 2016, an increase of 10.6%, year over year. In Q2 2017, the total number of mortgaged residential properties with negative equity fell 10% from Q1 2017 to 2.8 million homes, or 5.4%t of all mortgaged properties. Compared to Q2 2016, negative equity decreased 21.9% from 3.6 million homes, or 7.1% of all mortgaged properties.
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