Construction Spending

May 1, 2025 Construction spending (the green bars above) fell 0.5% in March after rising 0.6% in February.  This indicator has been essentially flat since the end of last year..  In the past 12 months it has risen 2.8%. Private construction spending (excluding the...

Pending Home Sales

April 30, 2025 Pending home sales jumped 6.1% in March to 76.5 after having risen 2.1% in February. The National Association of Realtors chief economist, Lawrence Yun said, “Home buyers are acutely sensitive to even minor fluctuations in mortgage rates.  While...

Case Shiller Index of Home Prices

April 29, 2025 The seasonally adjusted Case Shiller Index of Home Prices in 20 cities rose 0.4% in both January and February.  Prices have risen 4.5% in the past year. The National Index which is a slightly broader measure of home price increases rose 0.3% in February...

Existing Home Sales

April 24, 2025 . Existing home sales fell 5.9% in March to 4,020 thousand after having risen 4.4% in February.  Our expectation is that a steady increase in jobs will boost income, mortgage rates will edge lower in the months ahead, and prices should be about stable...

New Home Sales

April 23, 2025 New home sales jumped 7.4% in March to 724 thousand after having risen 3.1% in February.  In the past year new home sales have risen 6.0%.   New home sales can be volatile from month to month, but it seems clear that they are in a gradual uptrend....

Housing Starts

April 17, 2025 Housing starts plunged by 11.4% in March to 1,324 thousand after having risen 9.8% in February after falling 10.8% in January after jumping 16.9% in December.  Clearly, starts have been exceptionally volatile in recent months, rising or falling by...