Stephen Passaha
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
But some economists say that what's driving up the price of housing is not the number of Wall Street investors.
It's that there aren't enough homes on the market.
There were signs of a return to optimism among single-family homebuilders at the end of the year.
The housing market index saw three straight months of gains, but that's now ended.
The index fell two points to 37.
Anything below 50 means an overall negative outlook.
Builders are dealing with rising construction costs and high interest rates.
Most of the builders responded before the Trump administration announced new housing policies, like ordering Fannie and Freddie Mac to buy up $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities to lower mortgage rates.
The average 30-year mortgage is down.
But that's still well above COVID-era rates that make many homeowners reluctant to sell.
Honda is still building cars in the U.S., but those factories are now focusing on making vehicles for Americans rather than for exports.
Lamar Whitaker is the head of Honda's Alabama plant.
He said that's allowing the car company to still meet demands.
David Fernandez runs the Mazda Toyota plant in Alabama and said several of their models are setting sales records.
But the industry is still dealing with uncertainty.
Supply chain for at least our products is pretty stable right now.
But it's just the lack of visibility to know what's going to happen in the future.