Eye On Housing
Existing home sales increased 2.1% in October from a downwardly revised level in September, but were up 10.9% from the same period a year ago. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that October 2012 total existing home sales were at a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.79 million units combined for single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops. That compares to… Read More ›
Tag Archive for ‘home building’
Producer Prices in October – A Modest Decline As Energy Turns Down
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released the Producer Price Indexes (PPI) for October. Producer prices continued the recent pattern of following energy prices. The PPI for finished goods declined by 0.2% in October from September while the index for energy goods declined by 0.5%. The core index which excludes food and energy declined by 0.2%. Turning to the… Read More ›
Buying Products for Home Building and Remodeling: Who and Where
In a recent article, NAHB asked who is most often responsible for choosing everything from wood products to electrical and plumbing fixtures, finishing materials, siding, windows and doors, and other items that go into a new home or home renovation. Then, the surveys went one step further and asked, regardless of who chooses these products, where are they generally purchased? Perhaps not surprisingly, the… Read More ›
Headline Inflation Slows, but Core Inflation Accelerates
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers (CPI-U), a measure of inflation, slowed in the month of October to 0.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis. In August and September, the same measure rose by 0.6% per month. The deceleration in the CPI-U largely reflects a 0.2% decline in energy prices from 5.6% growth… Read More ›
Fed Chairman Bernanke on Mortgage Lending
In prepared comments, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve System, Ben Bernanke, addressed the challenges in housing and mortgage markets. Chairman Bernanke’s comments contained a clear message: tight lending standards that emerged after the housing boom are now holding back the housing market recovery and the economy as a whole. “It seems likely at this point that the pendulum has… Read More ›
Eye on the Economy: Improved Affordability Increases Number of Improving Markets
*Eye on the Economy is an NAHB newsletter that is published every two weeks and takes a larger view of recent economic and housing policy news. The housing industry continues to make slow but sure gains. With a growing labor market and continued household balance sheet repair, household formations are up in 2012, increasing demand for both renter- and owner-occupied… Read More ›
Nationwide Housing Affordability Improves in Third Quarter
Lower interest rates helped make homes more affordable to median-income families even as house prices continued to inch up in metro areas across the country in the third quarter of 2012. The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) rose to 74.1 in the third quarter, up slightly from 73.8 in the previous quarter. The HOI is the share of new… Read More ›
Consumer Credit Outstanding Climbs as Student Loans Continue To Rise
The Federal Reserve Board reported that consumer credit outstanding rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.0% in September to $2.7 trillion. The over-the-month increase in consumer credit outstanding, which excludes real estate secured loans such as mortgages and home equity lines of credit, reflected a 9.2% rise in non-revolving credit outstanding, 0.1 percentage point higher than the growth… Read More ›
Year over Year, Confidence in the 55+ Housing Market Continues to Improve
Once again, builder confidence in the 55+ housing market showed significant improvement, according to NAHB’s 55+ Housing Market Indices (55+ HMIs) for the third quarter of 2012. The 55+ HMIs and their components are based on survey questions that ask builders if market conditions are good, fair, or poor (high/very high, about average, or low/very low for the questions on traffic). … Read More ›