Tag Archives: Consumer Spending

The housing market might have had a rough start to the year, but according to Fannie Mae’s Economic and Housing Outlook released on Monday, this quarter seems to be a temporary headwind as a stimulative fiscal policy is expected to ...

Monday, Fannie Mae reported that they expect a rebound in economic growth and consumer spending will resume its position as the biggest contributor. With labor and inventory shortages still prevalent, the housing market hasn’t changed very much and home prices are still on the rise. Based on their research, Fannie expects mortgage rates to remain supportive, but the outlook on existing home sales remains cautious.

By most measures, home sales had their best year in a decade in 2016. Some concerns linger for housing for 2017, one economist reported.

Fannie Mae's Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) Group found that consumer spending and other solid domestic fundamentals are predicted to be key drivers of the rest of the year economic growth.

Housing data was mixed in June, but all main indicators increased during the first six months of the year compared to the same period last year. This supports Fannie Mae's expectation of a broad-based improvement in the housing market.

According to the group conducting the confidence survey, January's increase—which lifted the index to its highest level since 2004—was driven by an improvement in personal finances, with more consumers reporting increases in household income than any time in the past decade. They're also more optimistic about the labor outlook as job growth continues on a steady track.

According to BEA, the latest quarterly estimate includes improved contributions from consumer spending, which is now estimated to have increased 3.2 percent compared to Q2's 2.5 percent gain. Also improved in the third report was the contribution from nonresidential fixed investment, which increased 8.9 percent. Residential fixed investment—a measure of the housing market's direct contribution to economic activity—increased just 3.2 percent.

Consumer sentiment gained another five points in an early December measure, putting confidence levels at a near eight-year high.

Consumer sentiment hit yet another post-recession high in November, reflecting increased confidence in personal finances and the labor market heading into the holiday spending season.

According to the Conference Board, consumers in the latest survey were less optimistic about the labor market outlook, reflected in a decline in the share of respondents expecting more jobs in the next six months and an increase of more than 2 percentage points in the share expecting fewer jobs.