BLACKSBURG, Va. — The July 2024 housing report from Virginia Tech, Virginia Cooperative Extension, and the U.S. Forest Service shows mixed results. 

• Overall housing data, month-over-month and year-over-year, were mostly negative.
• On a month-over-month basis, multi-family starts, single-family permits, single-family completions, and new and existing house sales, the number was positive. 
• Year-over-year, total and single-family completions, total and single-family construction spending and new house sales were positive. 

The influence of increased mortgage rates is evident, as aggregate costs have decreased affordability and the “lock-in” effect has obfuscated sales.

“The ISM Manufacturing index missed consensus expectations once again in August and the details of the report are worrisome. Activity in the manufacturing sector has now contracted for twenty-one out of the last twenty-two months. Overall, twelve of the eighteen major manufacturing industries reported contraction in August while five reported growth and one reported no change. Despite an increase in the overall index, the two most important parts of the report – demand and output – worsened in August," says Brian S. Wesbury, chief economist of First Trust Advisors L.P. 

 The Virginia Tech report and the ISM Manufacturing index confirm a growing list of economic data pointing to a slowdown in growth. 

"We expect to see continued manufacturing weakness in the second half of 2024 as the bill for reckless and artificial spending by our government from the COVID years comes due and the lagged impacts from the drop in the M2 measure of the money supply from early 2022 through late 2023 take effect," says Robert Stein, deputy chief economist of First Trust Advisors L.P.