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Economy in Brief
U.S. Mortgage Applications Decline as Interest Rates Continue to Increase
The MBA Mortgage Loan Applications Index declined 11.4%...
U.S. Consumer Confidence Increases in February
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index increased 2.7% (-31.1% y/y) to 91.3 during February...
U.S. FHFA House Price Index Continues to Rise Markedly
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index increased 1.1% m/m in December...
U.S. Energy Prices Surge as Texas Freeze Limits Supply
The price of regular gasoline strengthened to $2.63 per gallon (6.8% y/y) in the week ended February 22...
EMU HICP Makes First Year-on-Year Rise since July
The EMU headline rose by 0.8% in January, its first year-on-year gain in six months...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller July 19, 2005
The National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) Composite Housing Market Index fell to 70 in July from the upwardly revised record level one month prior. The index this year has averaged 70, up slightly versus 2004.
During the last twenty years, annual changes in the composite index had an 85% correlation with the change in single family housing starts.
The July index for current sales of single family homes fell 2.6% y/y but remained up 1.4% versus a year ago. The index of expected sales in six months retraced all of the prior month's increase but was up 4.1% y/y.
Traffic of prospective home buyers remained at June's record high level.
The NAHB index is a diffusion index based on a survey of builders. Readings above 50 signal that more builders view conditions as good than poor.
Visit the National Association of Home Builders.
Nat'l Association of Home Builders | July | June | July '04 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Composite Housing Market Index | 70 | 72 | 67 | 68 | 64 | 61 |