Tag Archives: Commerce Department

For the third consecutive month, single‐family houses rose, as buyers cash in on low rates before a predicted hike in the coming months.

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. But with the U.S. economy thriving, what's with the housing market's paradoxical-seeming doldrums?

Sales of newly built homes picked up in October, but a downward revision to September shows numbers in that segment of the housing market remain volatile. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that sales of new single-family houses were at a ...

The U.S. economy continued to outperform in the third quarter as consumer and government spending provided a boost to gross domestic product (GDP). According to a second estimate from the Commerce Department, GDP grew at an annualized rate of 3.9 ...

According to BEA, the turnaround in the second quarter largely reflected positive contributions from consumer spending, exports, private inventory investment, state and local government spending, and both residential and non-residential fixed investment.

Employment growth in the United States took a sharp downturn in August, according to government figures released Friday. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported an increase 142,000 in U.S. payrolls last month, well short of the 230,000 predicted by economists. August's sudden slowdown snaps a six-month streak in which payroll growth came in at 200,000 or higher.

June sales received a slight upward revision to a rate of 422,000, while May sales were also bumped up in a second revision to 454,000—still far below the 504,000 originally reported by the government.

According to the Commerce Department and HUD, privately owned housing starts last month were at an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.07 million, representing a 13.2 percent jump from March’s barely revised pace of 947,000. Unfortunately for the supply-constrained single-family market, most of that spike came in apartment buildings, which were started at a rate of 413,000—a leap up from March.

According to numbers put out by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Wednesday, real gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annualized rate of 0.1 percent in Q1, a plunge from the final 2.6 percent growth rate reported for Q4 2013. The sudden slowdown reflects in part the toll this year’s winter season took on economic expansion, though not all changes were weather-related.