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- US: Wholesale Trade (Feb), Producer Prices (Mar)
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Economy in Brief
U.S. Wholesale Inventories Post Strong February Gain; Sales Fall
Wholesale inventories increased 0.6% (2.0% y/y) during February...
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Unexpectedly Increase
Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 744,000 during the week ended April 3...
Total PMIs Gain Traction in March
The PMI readings for March show improvement again...
U.S. Consumer Credit Outstanding Bounces Back in February
Consumer credit outstanding surged $27.6 billion during February...
U.S. Trade Deficit Widens to Record during February
The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services widened to $71.1 during February...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller August 23, 2018
The market for new homes varied greatly last month. New single-family home sales declined 1.7% (+12.8% y/y) during July to 627,000 (AR) after a 2.4% June fall to 638,000, revised from 631,000. It remained the lowest level of sales since October and was down from November's high of 712,000. Expectations had been for 648,000 sales in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Sales are calculated when contracts are closed and are tabulated by the National Association of Realtors.
The median price of a new home strengthened 6.0% to $328,700 (-4.2% y/y) from $310,000, revised from $302,100. It was the highest price since March. The average price of a new home increased 6.7% (5.9% y/y) to $394,300, the highest price since December.
New home sales were mixed last month throughout the country. Home sales in the Northeast fell by roughly one-half both m/m and y/y to 21,000. In the South, new home sales eased 3.3% (+17.2% y/y) to 355,000, a three-month low. New home sales in the West gained 10.9% (18.5%) to 173,000, a four-month high. In the Midwest sales rose 9.9% (18.2% y/y) to 78,000 and made up most of the decline during June.
The months' supply of homes on the market rose m/m to 5.9, the highest level since August. The median number of months a new home was on the market fell to 3.2, the lowest point since December.
The data in this report are available in Haver's USECON database. The consensus expectation figure from Action Economics is available in the AS1REPNA database.
Where We Stand: Assessment of Economic Conditions and Implications for Monetary Policy from Robert S. Kaplan, President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas is available here.
U.S. New Single-Family Home Sales (SAAR, 000s) | Jul | Jun | May | Jul Y/Y % | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | 627 | 638 | 654 | 12.8 | 616 | 560 | 502 |
Northeast | 21 | 44 | 33 | -48.8 | 40 | 32 | 25 |
Midwest | 78 | 71 | 84 | 18.2 | 72 | 69 | 61 |
South | 355 | 367 | 386 | 17.2 | 341 | 317 | 286 |
West | 173 | 156 | 151 | 18.5 | 164 | 142 | 130 |
Median Price (NSA, $) | 328,700 | 310,000 | 313,600 | 1.8 | 321,633 | 306,500 | 293,733 |