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Economy in Brief
U.S. Mortgage Applications Continue to Weaken
The MBA Loan Applications Index fell 1.2% (-54.5% y/y) in the week ended May 20...
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Germany's GfK consumer climate reading improved ever so slightly in June...
U.S. New Home Sales Plunge in April as Prices Jump
The new home sales market is unraveling...
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Retail gasoline prices increased to $4.59 per gallon in the week ended May 23...
S&P Flash PMIs Are Mixed in May As Manufacturing Erodes Slowly
Among the early reporting countries in Europe and Japan, the S&P PMI readings for May tilt toward weakness...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
State Coincident Indexes in April 2022
State Labor Markets in April 2022
Profits & Margins Plunge In Q1: Expect More Margin Contraction As Fed Squeezes Inflation
The Many Links of Inflation Cycle: Hard Landing Is Needed to Crack Them
Peak Inflation and Fed Policy: A Relationship which Should Worry the Fed and Scare Investors
by Tom Moeller January 25, 2012
A one-month drop belies a firming trend. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that December pending sales of single-family homes fell 3.5% (+5.6% y/y) following two months of strong increase. Sales rose 7.3% in November and by 10.4% during October. The index level of 96.6 (2001=100) remained nearly the highest since April of last year.
The decline in sales last month occurred in most regions of the country led by an 11.0% decline in the West. That mostly reversed November's strength. Sales in the Northeast fell a lesser 3.1% while sales in the South fell 2.6%. Bucking the downturn was the Midwest with a 4.0% increase. This latest was the third gain in as many months and pulled sales to their highest since April, 2010.
Pending home sales figures are analogous to the new home sales data from the Commerce Department in that they measure existing home sales when the sales contract is signed, not at the time the sale is closed. The series dates back to 2001 and the data are available in Haver's PREALTOR database.
Rehypothecation from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia is available here.
Pending Home Sales (2001=100) | Dec | Nov | Oct | Y/Y % | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | 96.6 | 100.1 | 93.3 | 5.6 | 90.5 | 89.4 | 94.5 |
Northeast | 74.7 | 77.1 | 71.3 | -0.8 | 88.3 | 71.6 | 76.6 |
Midwest | 95.3 | 91.6 | 88.7 | 13.3 | 81.8 | 80.3 | 88.6 |
South | 101.1 | 103.8 | 99.5 | 4.9 | 98.4 | 97.0 | 98.0 |
West | 107.9 | 121.2 | 105.5 | 3.7 | 104.4 | 100.8 | 109.3 |