Eye On Housing
Credit standards on applications for land development and construction loans or credit lines tightened on net, albeit slightly, over the second quarter of 2015. According to the most recent iteration of the Federal Reserve Board’s Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey, a net share of 1.4% of senior bank respondents reported that lending standards at their respective bank tightened over the… Read More ›
At 2:00 pm today the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy setting committee, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), concluded its July meeting and released the standard post-meeting statement. Let the reading of the tea leaves begin. Analysts’ expectations for the meeting were for no major changes and the FOMC delivered: marginal changes in the assessment of economic conditions (more later), no… Read More ›
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported consumer prices increased broadly in June. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.9%, slower than 5.5% in May. Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the “core” CPI rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.2% in June. Large swings in energy prices account for… Read More ›
The Federal Reserve Board recently reported that consumer credit outstanding rose by a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.7%, $193.0 billion, in May 2015, slower than the 7.6% rate of growth recorded in April 2015. Consumer credit outstanding now totals $3.401 trillion. The expansion of total consumer credit outstanding partly reflected an increase in the outstanding amount of non-revolving consumer credit. Non-revolving… Read More ›
The minutes from the meetings of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy setting committee, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), are regularly released three weeks after the meeting and provide a more detailed view of the deliberations than the statement released at the conclusion of the meeting. The most valuable insight from the minutes of the June meeting is that all… Read More ›
The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy setting committee, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), concluded its June meeting and confirmed the generally held expectation of no increase in the federal funds rate at this meeting. While the June meeting was widely regarded as the likely timing of “lift-off” late last year and early this year, the consensus had shifted to later… Read More ›
According to a Federal Reserve analysis, U.S. households surveyed during October 2014 reported only modest improvements with respect to economic well-being but felt increasingly optimistic about the future. The Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED), first conducted in 2013, complements the triennial Survey of Consumer Finances, the Federal Reserve’s key report on household wealth. Among the housing-focused findings of the report: 74%… Read More ›
Minutes released from the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) April meeting strongly suggest that June is off the table for the timing of the first increase in the federal funds rate. Publically, no one inside the Fed has been willing to admit it, outside the Fed few still consider it a real possibility, but now it’s as official as it… Read More ›
The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy setting committee, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), concluded its April meeting with a statement downgrading its assessment of the economic outlook but offered no indication of any change in policy with respect to the timing of the first increase in interest rates. The committee stuck to its language from the March statement, repeating that… Read More ›
Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting March 17-18 reveal relatively little new information about the deliberations beyond what was available from the post-meeting statement and press conference (March Meeting). Economic growth appears to have moderated somewhat in the first quarter, the labor market has improved markedly but indicators of underutilization remain, and… Read More ›