Economy in Brief: September 2012

The new home sales market cooled off last month.New home sales in August slipped 0.3% to 373,000 from 374,000 during the prior month, revised from 372,000. The slip compared to Consensus expectations for 380,000 sales. The shortfall [...]

The market for home mortgages continues to heat up with interest rates touching levels not seen since the 1940s. The Mortgage Bankers Association index of total mortgage applications increased 2.8% last week (14.0% y/y) following a [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) rose a lessened 0.2% during July following a 0.6% June increase, last month reported as 0.7%. It was the easiest of the last six consecutive monthly gains. [...]

Haver's updates today include several for Poland. Most of them show that the Polish economy, that had outperformed many of its Eastern European neighbors, is now continuing to slow down.The index of industrial production has [...]

Chain store sales nudged up 0.6% last week (2.9% y/y) but barely dented the prior week's 2.5% decline. For September so far sales are 1.2% below August adding to that month's 1.8% decline. During the last ten years there has been a [...]

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index for September jumped 14.7% to 70.3 from 61.3 in August, revised up from 60.6. Consensus had been looking for a m/m decline to 63.0. The latest figure was the highest since February. [...]

Since the summer, petroleum prices have been on the rise but lately the momentum eased.The pump price of regular gasoline fell five cents last week to $3.83 per gallon. However, since fall usually brings with it less driving, prices [...]

Housing prices are on the rise throughout the country. The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index rose 0.4% (1.1% y/y) during July. That added to an unrevised 0.9% June increase. The gain in prices follows last [...]