The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index improved to 18 in August compared to 17 in July. This is the idnex’s highest reading since June 2008. This index measures builders’ views over the conditions of the housing market; any reading below 50 implies their view is negative. The index remains depressed primarily due to, improving, but […]
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Housing Sector
Initial jobless claims rose to 4K this week to 558K, compared to a previous revised reading of 554K and a Bloomberg consensus forecast of 543K. This number has been trending to lower, which indicates a slowing improvement for the US labor market. But, claims still remains far from healthy levels, and still indicates significant deterioration […]
An upward surprise in this morning’s pending home sales data helped to restore some sentiment to the market after a disappointing personal income release. Pending home sales were up 3.6% in June, compared to a consensus forecast of 0.7%. This was the 5th consecutive month of gains. Pending home sales were up in all four […]
July’s ISM came in well above expectations at 48.9, compared to June’s reading of 44.8, a reading over 50 would indicate expansion. The employment index rose to 45.6 from 40.7, while prices paid rose to 55.0 from 50.0. The growth in the employment index could help alleviate some pressure on this Friday’s employment report, it […]
The S&P Case Shiller Index rose 0.5% in May, the index’s first monthly gain in three years. But, the index is still down by 17.1% on a year over year basis. 14 of the 20 cities in the index experienced gains with Cleveland leading the pack with an increment of 4.1%, followed by Dallas with […]
New Home Sales rose by 11.0% in June, realizing an annual rate of sales of 384,000 units versus last month’s revised pace of 346,000. This was the index’s largest gain in eight years. New home sales increased in every region, excluding the south. The supply of new homes in June fell to 8.8 from 10.2 […]
US existing home sales came in above the market consensus, rising 3.6% at an annualized rate of 4.89mn. Single family home sales increased by 2.4%, while condo/coop sales increased 14.0%. The months supply of home also improved moving to 9.4 months, compared to 9.8 in May. The median home price rose 4.1%, but still remains […]
June housing starts came in this morning well above expectations increasing 3.6%, totaling 582K (SAAR) units. Economists has been anticipating 530K. This is the index’s second consecutive month of gains, which could indicate some stabilization for the sector. There were also some positive revisions to April’s and May’s starts numbers. The increase was due to […]
The MBA The Market Composite Index rose 10.9% the week ending July 3rd 2009. The purchase index rose 6.7%, while the refinancing component climbed 15.2%, on the back of relatively favorable interest rates. Remember this index could be skewed by lenders filling out multiple applications, and I would like to see a continued trend in […]
This piece is simply an updated version to a piece I published back on March 5th 2008 titled ‘How will it end’. Despite the fact we are much deeper into this financial crisis; the root of the problem has not changed, and that is the US housing market. As an interesting exercise consider that in […]