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Economy in Brief
Delay in Release
of Data for Construction, MSIO, Intl Trade, Wholesale Trade, Monthly Treasury, Retail Sales, Business Sales & Inventories, and Housing Starts Due to Lapse in Federal Government Funding.
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Slip
Initial claims for jobless insurance eased to 213,000 (-2.6% y/y) during the week ended January 12...
U.S. Import Prices Pulled Lower by Falling Oil Prices
Import prices fell 1.0% during December following a 1.8% November decline...
U.S. Home Builder Index Improves
The NAHB -Wells Fargo Composite Housing Market Index rose to 58 during January...
U.S. Mortgage Loan Applications Continue to Strengthen
The MBA total Mortgage Applications Index increased 13.5% (1.4% y/y) during the week ended January 11...
by Tom Moeller July 16, 2009
According to the National Association of Home Builders, improvement in the housing market continued during July. Their Composite Housing Market Index recovered the June slip and rose to 17, which equaled the highest level since June of last year. The index is compiled from survey questions asking builders to rate market conditions as “good”, “fair”, “poor” or “very high” to “very low”. Numerical results over 50 indicate a predominance of “good” readings.
Also showing improvement during all of the first quarter was the Home Builders' Housing Opportunity Index, which is the share of homes sold that could be considered affordable to a family earning the median income. It jumped to a record high of 72.5% buoyed by lower home prices, lower interest rates and higher income. (There is a break in the series from 2002 to 2003.)
The Home Builders Association indicated that its sub-index of present sales rose this month to the highest level since June '08. At a reading of 17 the figure was up significantly from the January low of 6. Since 1990, the year-to-year change in this index has had an 80% correlation with the year-to-year percentage change in new single-family home sales.
The index of builders’ expectations for home sales in six months held stable but remained near its highest since September. The “traffic" of prospective buyers also improved from June and was up from the record lows of this past Winter.
The strength in the July composite index readings was concentrated in the South. Elsewhere in the country composite indexes were flat-to-lower.
The NAHB has compiled the Housing Market Index since 1985. The weights assigned to the individual index components are .5920 for single family detached sales, present time; .1358 for single family detached sales, next six months; and .2722 for traffic of prospective buyers. The results, along with other housing and remodeling indexes from NAHB Economics, are included in Haver’s SURVEYS database.
Today's House testimony by Fed Governor Elizabeth A. Duke titled Consumer Protection can be found here.
| Nat'l Association of Home Builders | July | June | July '08 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Composite Housing Market Index (All Good = 100) | 17 | 15 | 16 | 16 | 27 | 42 |
| Single-Family Sales | 17 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 27 | 45 |
| Single-Family Sales: Next Six Months | 26 | 26 | 23 | 25 | 37 | 51 |
| Traffic of Prospective Buyers | 14 | 13 | 12 | 14 | 21 | 30 |
