Recent Updates
- New Zealand: Value of Building Work Put in Place by Region (Q4)
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- US: Public Debt (Feb), Mfrs' Shipments Inventories & Orders (Jan), Productivity & Costs with Revisions (Q4)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Rise Just 9,000
Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose modestly by 9,000 to 745,000 in the week ended February 27...
U.S. Productivity's Decline Lessened in Q4'20; Reverses Q3 Increase
Revisions to nonfarm business sector productivity indicated a 4.2% decline during Q4'20...
EMU Unemployment Rate Steadies in January
The overall EMU unemployment rate was steady in January, off peak, but still elevated...
U.S. ADP Nonfarm Private Payroll Increase Disappoints in February
Job market strength moderated last month....
U.S. ISM Services Index Weakens in February
The ISM Composite Index of Services Activity declined to 55.3 during February...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller September 26, 2005
The National Association of Realtors reported that with a 2.0% m/m rise in August to 7.29 million, total existing home sales recovered nearly all of the prior month's downwardly revised 2.7% decline. Consensus expectations had been for 7.12M sales.
Single-family sales rose a similar 1.9% to 6.35 million while condo & co-op sales increased 2.2% to 940,000 (14.6% y/y). The data cover sales closed in the latest and previous months, and contrast to the new home sales data which count sales at the signing of a contract.
The median price of an existing single-family home increased 1.7% to $219,400 (16.2% y/y) following a downwardly revised 0.5% dip in July.Prices are not seasonally adjusted. Prices tend to soften following the peak Spring-Summer selling season.
By region, single family home sales rose everywhere except in the South where they were unchanged (7.3% y/y) for the second consecutive month.Out West single family sales rose 7.7% y/y, in the Midwest sales rose 5.8% y/y and in the Northeast sales rose 4.9% y/y.
Housing Markets and Demographics from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is available here.
The latest release from the National Association of Realtors is available here.
Existing Home Sales (000, AR) | Aug | July | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total Home Sales | 7,290 | 7,150 | 7.8% | 6,723 | 6,170 | 5,653 |
Single Family Home Sales | 6,350 | 6,230 | 6.9% | 5,913 | 5,441 | 4,995 |
Single Family Median Home Price ($,000) | $219.4 | $215.7 | 16.2% | $182.8 | $169.1 | $157.6 |