Tag Archives: Mark Lieberman

Home prices posted their strongest year-year gain in almost seven years in January according to the Case-Shiller 10- and 20-city Home Price Indexes released Tuesday. Home prices rose year-year in all 20 of the cities in the Case-Shiller survey. Month-over-month, the 10-city index improved 0.2 percent in January, while the 20-city index was up 0.1 percent. Year-over-year, the 10-city index was up 7.3 percent, and the 20-city index rose 8.1 percent. Prices rose in nine cities in January over December while falling in eight.

One of the most interesting results of poring through economic data reports is that the details often tell a different story than the headline. The recent report on retail sales is a case in point. While the vast majority of commentators were impressed with a strong 1.1 percent month-over-month increase in overall sales, those who scratched the surface were rewarded for their efforts by learning more than half of the month-over-month increase came from an increase in gasoline station sales as prices. In addition, coverage of the recent report on housing permits and starts was dominated by the increase in both permits and starts. A closer look at the permit-starts data revealed another important phenomenon: a shift from single-family to multifamily construction.

Existing-home sales rose 0.8 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.98 million, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday. Economists had expected the sales pace to climb to 5.01 million from January's originally reported 4.92 million. January sales were revised up to 4.94 million. The inventory of homes for sale rose for the first time since last July, up 9.6 percent to 1,940,000. At the reported sales pace, that represents a 4.7-month supply of homes for sale, up from the 4.3-month supply reported for January.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance increased 2,000 to 336,000 for the week ending March 16--the first increase in a month--the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists expected claims to rise to 340,000. Initial jobless claims for the week ending March 9 were revised up to 334,000 from the initially reported 332,000. The slight increase in first-time claims was driven largely by seasonal adjustment factors and as such masks the sharp improvement in the jobs market.

With an upbeat assessment of the economy, the Federal Open Market Committee voted 11-1 Wednesday to leave interest rates unchanged and to continue its program of purchasing agency mortgage backed securities and longer term Treasury securities ""to maintain downward pressure on longer-term interest rates, support mortgage markets, and help to make broader financial conditions more accommodative.""

Housing permits rose a sharp 4.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 946,000 in February to the highest level since June 2008, while housing starts edged up 0.8 percent to 917,000, the Census Bureau and HUD reported jointly Tuesday. Most--almost 62 percent--of the increase in permits came in applications to build multifamily units.

Builder confidence slipped in March to 44, the lowest level since October, the National Association of Home Builders Monday. Economists had expected the Housing Market Index, the measure of confidence, to improve to 47 from February's reading of 46. It was the second straight monthly decline in the index and the third straight month the index failed to increase (it was flat from December to January). Tighter inventories had been expected to improve confidence, but builder attitudes have also been weighed down by prices of new single-family homes.

It's been two weeks since the dreaded sequester took effect, and so far, the only casualty has been the White House tour. There actually have been some positives, with both parties presenting budgets. However, both the GOP budget and the Democratic plan have one major similarity: Each is dead on arrival and destined to at best be a one-house budget, which leaves the country back where it was. Setting a target for practical balance would bring us closer to reducing the deficit and with less pain.

Led by a surge in gasoline prices, retail sales rose 1.1 percent in February, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday. Economists had expected an increase of 0.5 percent. In January, retails sales rose 0.2 percent. Gasoline station sales rose 5.0 percent in February after a 0.7 percent increase in January.

The number of layoffs fell 4.0 percent to 1,507,000 in January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Tuesday in its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) release, which details the ins and out of the labor market. The layoff total was the smallest since the JOLTS reports began in December 2000. At the same time, BLS said, the number of job openings rose 2.2 percent in January to 3,693,000, which meant there were 3.34 unemployed people for every job opening--a slight improvement from 3.38 in December.