Eye On Housing
The Federal Reserve’s latest G.19 Consumer Credit Report shows rising trends in consumer credit, excluding loans secured by real estate, through April 2019. As of April 30, 2019, consumer credit totaled $4.1 trillion on a seasonally adjusted basis, with $1.1 trillion in revolving debt1 and $3.0 trillion in nonrevolving debt2. The latest monthly year-over-year percentage increase of 5.3% in the… Read More ›
Consumer sentiment and consumer confidence are two indexes showing consumers’ perceptions of current business, income and employment conditions, as well as their expectations for the future’s economy. In July, both the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment and the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index declined unexpectedly after the solid growth in June. Despite the monthly declines the indexes have… Read More ›
Consumer sentiment and consumer confidence are two indexes showing consumers’ perceptions of current business, income and employment conditions, as well as their expectations for the future’s economy. In June, both the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment and the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index rose. These gains reflect continuing improvement in several sectors of the economy. Strong job gains… Read More ›
Consumer sentiment and consumer confidence are two indexes showing consumers’ perceptions of current business, income and employment conditions, as well as their expectations for the future’s economy. They are both highly (inversely) correlated with the unemployment rate. Based on the data from the past three decades, the Consumer Confidence Index and the Consumer Sentiment Index increase when the unemployment rate… Read More ›
The University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment reached a ten-year peak of 95.5 in the first quarter of 2015. Although the Index of Consumer Sentiment Index decreased to 93.0 in March from 95.4 in February, it was up from 80.0 from March 2014. The harsh winter dampened the giddiness of falling gasoline prices from the start of the year…. Read More ›
Improving job and wage prospects lifted the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment December Index to its most favorable level since its last cyclical peak in January 2007. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index reversed its November retreat based on a more favorable estimate of current business and labor market conditions. The Consumer Sentiment Index increased to 93.6 in December from… Read More ›
Spurred by improved consumer expectations, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index reached its highest level since July 2007, and the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index increased sharply. This 3-month moving average charts both surveys. The Consumer Sentiment Index increased to 86.9 in October from 84.6 the previous month. The survey’s measure of consumer expectations increased to 79.6 in… Read More ›
September Consumer Sentiment reached a 14-month high, driven by favorable prospects for the US economy and personal income expectations. Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan reported that consumer sentiment reached 84.6 in September, up from 82.5 at the end of August. The September index reading was the second highest in the past seven years, and boosts prospects for new home construction. Rising… Read More ›