Economy in Brief: April 2019

New home sales increased 4.5% (3.0% y/y) during March to 692,000 (AR) following a rise to 662,000 in February, revised from 667,000. It was the highest level of sales since November 2017 and up from the low of 552,000 this past [...]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Price Index for house purchases rose 0.3% in February following an unrevised 0.6% January increase. The 4.9% y/y increase was the weakest since early-2015, down from a 7.6% high early in 2018. [...]

Retail gasoline prices edged one penny higher last week to $2.84 per gallon last week (1.5% y/y). The uptick followed four months of strong increase. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes fell 4.9% (-5.4% y/y) during March to 5.210 million units (SAAR). The decline reversed half of February's strengthening to 5.480 million units, revised from [...]

Consumer and business confidence peaked in the mature portion of this cycle about 1.5 years ago. As the graphic shows, consumer and business confidence are not always embedded in the same cycle. But the big swings in each series [...]

New building activity has failed to garner strength this year. Total housing starts during March eased 0.3% (-14.2% y/y) to 1.139 million (SAAR) from 1.142 million during February, revised from 1.162 million. It was the lowest level [...]

Total business inventories increased 0.3% (4.9% year-on-year) during February, after a slightly upwardly-revised 0.9% gain in January. Total business sales edged up 0.1% (2.4% y/y) following a 0.3% rise. The inventory-to-sales (I/S) [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported in its Manufacturing Business Outlook Survey that the General Business Conditions Index rebounded this month to 13.7 after declining in February to -4.1. The figures from the [...]