In this Real Estate News Brief for the week ending February 5th, 2022... the growth of construction spending for single-family homes, worries over rising mortgage rates, and the futuristic auction of a Tampa Bay home.Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. Economic NewsWe begin with economic news from this past week, and good news about the job market. The government says that U.S. companies added 467,000 jobs in January. That’s after the creation of 510,000 jobs in December. Wall Street economists has only predicted 150,000 new jobs for January and 200,000 for December. (1)There’s no lack of jobs, but many people have missed work recently because of the omicron surge. As MarketWatch reports, a record 7.8 million people called in sick last month. That helped drive the unemployment rate higher from 3.9% to 4%. But the omicron wave is receding in many parts of the country, and the number of unemployment applications was down for a second week in a row. There were just 23,000 people applying for benefits last week. (2)The homeownership rate moved slightly higher in the fourth quarter of last year. Realtor.com reports a total of 83.5 million owner-occupied households for a homeownership rate of 65.5%. That’s .3% higher than the third quarter. If you break that down by age group, people who are 65 or older have the highest homeownership rate at 79.4%. The lowest homeownership rate is 38.3% for people younger than 35. Back in 2004, the homeownership rate hit a high of 69.2%. (3)2021 was a big year for private residential construction spending. Money spent to build single-family homes was up 33% compared to 2020. It was up about half that much for multi-family. The two categories that saw the least amount of spending growth were public safety and office space. Spending for those categories was down 33 and 32% respectively. (4)Mortgage RatesMortgage rates are holding steady at around 3.55% for a thirty-year fixed-rate mortgage. Freddie Mac says the average for the 15-year was down 3 basis points this last week to 2.77%. The mortgage guarantor says the economic impact of the omicron surge is keeping mortgage rates from rising higher, but it also expects them to start creeping higher again this spring and summer. (5)In other news making headlines...Keeping Rates Low with Rate LocksHome buyers are keeping a close watch on mortgage rates, and some are taking advantage of “rate locks.” It costs extra to buy a rate lock, but Realtor.com says it can prevent a big surprise when it’s time to buy. The most common rate lock is for 30 days, but buyers can get them for various amounts of time, from 15 days to 45 days or longer. (6)Buyers can also lower their mortgage rates by paying discount points. One point costs 1% of the loan amount, and could reduce your mortgage rate by about .25%. It’s not time to panic however. Interest rates are still at historic lows. The National Association of Realtors doesn’t expect them to rise that quickly. It is predicting they’ll average just 3.9% by the end of this year. Young Adults Continue to Live with ParentsMany potential homebuyers are young adults who continue to live with their parents as the pandemic shakes out. NAR says that 17.8% of adults ages 25 to 34 moved back in with mom and dad in 2020. That’s the highest level since 1960. In 2021, that percentage remained high at 17%. (7)But the trend has evolved from the initial impact of the pandemic, to other related trends. NAR’S Jessie Lautz writes: “Some young adults may have recently moved back home due to the flexibility of remote work trends and to avoid paying high rents.” She says it could also be due to job losses, or getting an education, but she says: “Regardless of the reason, living with family may provide a benefit to potential first-time home buyers.” If children are living at home rent-free, it makes it easier for them to save up for a down payment.Tampa