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existing home sales

Housing Recovery: To Remain a no Show in 2010

Now that the extended first time home buyer credit is history, so is whatever impact it once had on home sales.  The good news is that data indicates the extended program had only a modest impact, especially compared to the original incentive; this however is also the bad news.  A recent, albeit modest, jump in home sales […]

First Portugal, Then New Home Sales, Next…

What a day, I wake up to the news that Fitch has downgraded Portugal, leading to a strong sell-off in Euro–reaching a ten month low against the dollar. This news was not tremendously surprising, and I expect the situation in Europe will get far worse before getting better, especially if Greece doesn’t find a funding […]

Home Sales All Around Disappoint

New Homes sales plummeted to a pace of 342K units in December, falling 7.6% from a revised 370K in November (originally 355K). The current Bloomberg consensus forecast was for a pace of 368K. The supply of new homes climbed during the month to 8.1 months versus 7.6 in November. The median new home price rose […]

US Economics Week Ahead: Nothing’s Certain

Over the past two weeks new uncertainties have begun pouring into the markets, like the deluge of rain currently striking the west coast—I spent part of last week in Los Angeles.  However, unlike what’s happening over the west coast, the storms investors faced were mostly avoidable.   It all began with legitimate concerns over tightening Chinese […]

Existing Home Sales– Surprise to the Upside

November’s existing home sales rose 7.4% to 6.54 million units, after a marginal downward revision to 6.09 million units in October from 6.10. This increment was above market expectations, and likely driven primarily by what would have been the expiration of the first-time home buyer tax credit at the end of the November. The months’ […]

US Economics Week Ahead: Retailers not Dreaming of a White Christmas

Retailers are not dreaming of a white Christmas.  Whether a snowstorm impacting the Mid-Atlantic region this weekend will impact an arguably lackluster holiday shopping season is yet to be seen.  But, bad weather does have a tendency of keeping would be shoppers home, however, these shoppers will still have access to online stores, but given […]

US Economics Week Ahead: Is There Time for Turkey?

The market will be providing a cornucopia of data this week centered on Tuesday and Wednesday, which you can mull over as you begin brining your turkeys—as an aside here’s the recipe I will be following this year.  Also, I wrote an interesting column on Friday for Real Money titled ‘Talking Turkey on Agricultural Trends’ […]

US Economics Week Ahead: Earnings Usurp Housing Data

On the economic front the market will be encountering some important housing related releases in addition to the Fed’s Beige Book on Wednesday.  On the housing front, on Monday the market will get a peak at October’s NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, followed by housing starts on Tuesday.  However, the most important housing release of […]

Existing Home Sales Show Unexpected Decline

Existing home sales for August fell by 2.7% to a 5.10mn annualized selling rate, compared to a Bloomberg consensus forecast of 5.35mn and a rate of 5.24mn in July.This is the first time in four months the index has experienced a decline. Single-family sales declined 2.8% in August to a rate of 4.48mn versus 4.61 […]

US Economic Week Ahead: Big Ben & His Men (& Women)…

Undoubtedly the most important item on this week’s calendar will be Wednesday’s FOMC announcement, which is highly unlikely to show any changes to the current policy stance.  But, as always, the market will be paying close attention the wording of the FOMC’s statement, which turned slightly more constructive last month indicating that financial markets have […]