Recent Updates
- Kazakhstan: Labor Productivity Index (Q4)
- Japan: Help Wanted Advertisements (Mar), All Industry Activity Indexes, Labor Productivity (Feb)
- Philippines: Public Finance (Mar); Thailand: Domestic Car Sales Press (Mar); China: Business Climate (Q4); Korea: Consumer Survey Index, Inflation Expectations (Apr), Trade Indexes (Mar); Bangladesh: IP (Dec); Taiwan: TIER Business Outlook (Mar)
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Economy in Brief
U.S. New Home Sales and Prices Strengthen
Sales of new single-family homes during March increased 4.0% (8.8% y/y) to 694,000 (SAAR)...
U.S. FHFA House Price Index Continues to Strengthen
The FHFA index of U.S. house prices rose 0.6% during February...
U.S. Energy Prices Rise Further
Retail gasoline prices increased to $2.80 per gallon last week (14.3% y/y)...
Italian Confidence Backtracks But Remains High-Valued As It Is for France and Germany
From Q1 2008 to date, Italian GDP actually has failed to grow and has declined by 5.8%...
U.S. Existing Home Sales & Prices Rise Again
The NAR reported that sales of existing homes increased 1.1% during March (-1.2% y/y) to 5.600 million units (AR)...
by Tom Moeller March 16, 2015
The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo declined to 53 in March (+15.2% y/y) from an unrevised 55 in February. It was the lowest figure since July. During the last ten years, there has been an 80% correlation between the y/y change in the home builders index and the y/y change in single-family housing starts. The latest figure fell short of 56, expected in the Informa Global Markets Survey. The NAHB figures are seasonally adjusted.
The index of single-family home sales continued to fall to 58 (+13.7% y/y), its lowest level since August. The index of expected sales during the next six months was unchanged at 59 (11.3% y/y). It was the lowest reading since June.
Realtors reported that their traffic index declined sharply to 37, the lowest level since June. The figure was 15.6% higher than twelve months ago.
Housing market activity was mixed around the country this month. In the Midwest, the reading improved 27.1% (22.0% y/y). In the West, however, the index fell 17.2% (+3.9% y/y) and the index reading in the Northeast declined 15.2% (+30.2% y/y). In the South, it fell 3.6% (+12.5% y/y).
The NAHB has compiled the Housing Market Index since 1985. It reflects survey questions asking builders to rate market conditions as "good," "fair," "poor" or "very high" to "very low." The figure is thus a diffusion index with numerical results over 50 indicating a predominance of "good" readings. 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 are included in Haver's SURVEYS database. The expectations figure is available in Haver's MMSAMER database.
National Association of Home Builders | Mar | Feb | Jan | Mar'14 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Composite Housing Market Index, SA (All Good=100) | 53 | 55 | 57 | 46 | 52 | 51 | 34 |
Single-Family Sales: Present | 58 | 61 | 62 | 51 | 56 | 55 | 36 |
Single-Family Sales: Next Six Months | 59 | 60 | 60 | 53 | 61 | 58 | 41 |
Traffic of Prospective Buyers | 37 | 39 | 44 | 32 | 39 | 39 | 27 |