Economic Roundup

In the News

Existing home sales are up again, according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), which reported that sales for existing homes increased by 3.6 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million units, compared to May’s revised rate of 4.72 million homes. June’s sales were only 0.2 percent lower than the 4.9 million-unit pace NAR reported for June 2008.

“The increase in existing-home sales occurred in all major regions of the country,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “We expect a gradual uptrend in sales to continue due to tax credit incentives and historically high affordability conditions.”

In line with the optimistic home sales data, the Conference Board reported that its index of leading economic indicators for the United States was up 0.7 percent for June, the third straight month in a row. May enjoyed a 1.3 percent rise and April experienced a 1 percent increase. Over the past six months, the Board says the U.S. index has increased 4.1 percent (annually).

The Conference Board’s index tracks how the U.S. economy is performing via a collection of key data points, such as new orders, jobless claims, money supply, average workweek, building permits and stock prices.

“The recession has been losing steam since the spring, although very large job losses continue,” said Ken Goldstein, economist at the Conference Board. “Nevertheless, confidence is slowly rebuilding. Financial markets are less volatile. Even the housing market is stabilizing. If these trends continue, expect a slow recovery this autumn.”

Per Goldstein’s comments on the job market, the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration reported that seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims were at 554,000 for the week ending July 18. This marked an increase of 30,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 524,000. That said, the four-week moving average was 566,000, a decrease of 19,000 from the previous week's revised average of 585,000, according to the administration.

This week, monitor the headlines for information on consumer confidence (July 27) from the Conference Board; orders for durable goods (July 29) from the Census Bureau; and the gross domestic product (July 31) and personal income and consumption (July 31) from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Donna Turpin
Sales Manager

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Nancy & Heather Cloward

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