Consumer Confidence

May 27, 2025 . The Conference Board reported that consumer confidence jumped 12.3 points in May to 98.0 after having fallen  8.2 points in April, 6.2 points in March and 5.2 points in February.  After hitting a peak in November confidence plunged for five months in a...

Case Shiller Index of Home Prices

May 27, 2025 The seasonally adjusted Case Shiller Index of Home Prices in 20 cities declined 0.1% in March after having risen 0.4% in February.  Prices have risen 4.1% in the past year. The National Index which is a slightly broader measure of home price increases...

Durable Goods Orders

May 27, 2025 Durable goods orders fell 6.3% in April after having risen  7.6% in March.   Durable goods orders have risen 3.2% in the past year.  The big increase in March and the corresponding drop in April almost entirely reflected changes in civilian aircraft...

New Home Sales

May 23, 2025 New home sales jumped 10.9% in April to 743 thousand after  having risen 2.6% in March.  In the past year new home sales have risen 3.3%.   New home sales can be volatile from month to month, but it seems clear that they are in a gradual uptrend. Mortgage...

Existing Home Sales

May 22, 2025 . Existing home sales fell 0.5% in April to 4,000 thousand after having declined 5.9% in March..  Our expectation is that a steady increase in jobs will boost income, mortgage rates will be fairly steady in the months ahead, and prices should also be...

Initial Unemployment Claims

May 22, 2025 Initial unemployment claims declined 2 thousand in the week ending May 17 to 227 thousand after being unchanged in the previous week.    There is no evidence that the labor market has been affected by layoffs thus far.  However, we know that some...