Marcus Valdez

IT'S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS...OR IS IT? As we look back at last week, think about this for starters - the housing industry received some welcome good news, as Existing Home Sales came in better than anticipated, and marking the third straight month that Existing Home Sales have increased. And perhaps even better, the supply of unsold homes on the market dropped from the prior reading of 9.8 months down to 9.4 months - which is the best level seen in over a year. With home loan rates still at low levels and homes priced to sell - this is a great time for potential homebuyers to stop thinking, and go ahead and take some action.

Despite that bright spot of news, last week's Consumer Sentiment report - which measures consumers' attitudes and expectations concerning both present and future economic conditions - showed that consumers still think the economy has a ways to go, as the report did come in a bit weaker than anticipated. According to the report last week, Consumer Sentiment came in at 66 for the month of July, down from June's reading of 70.8. Take a look at the chart below for an interesting historical perspective on this report.

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Chart: Consumer Sentiment (University of Michigan)

And one of the major reasons for the decline in Consumer Sentiment was ongoing concern over unemployment - and last week, Initial Jobless Claims reportedly rose by 554,000. While this number was high, it was essentially in-line with expectations of 557,000.

The big news that many headlines featured was the number of Continuing Claims, which fell from 6.31 million the prior week to 6.22 million. And although this drop was reported as positive news, we need to remember that a large number of people are still unable to find jobs, but are no longer being counted in Continuing Claims because their unemployment benefits have expired. The bottom line is that it will be hard for the economy to really turn higher with momentum until the labor market starts to turn around.

Stocks had a good week, with the Dow closing above 9,000 on Thursday for the first time since January 6th, as well as finishing the week with its strongest two-week span for blue chips since 2000. Since Stocks moving higher can drain money away from Bonds, the rally in Stocks - combined with the announcement of next week's Treasury's auction of $115 Billion in Notes - put selling pressure on Bonds toward the end of the week. Despite some volatile mid-week action, home loan rates closed out the week near the level where they had begun the week.

SPEAKING OF TAKING ACTION...IF YOU'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT GOING BACK TO SCHOOL TO IMPROVE YOUR MARKETABILITY OR RETRAIN FOR A NEW CAREER, CHECK OUT THIS WEEK'S MORTGAGE MARKET VIEW FOR TIPS ON HOW ADULTS CAN GET FREE MONEY FOR SCHOOL.

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Powertech's proposed Centennial Project would take place within the the Laramie-Fox Hills aquifer. This aquifer covers most of the Denver Basin area, approximately 7,000 square miles along the Front Range from Wyoming to Colorado Springs and east to Limon.

Commercial, municipal, agricultural and residential wells use the Laramie Fox Hills aquifer extensively. In February of 2001 there were 33,700 recorded wells. With the population and commercial growth in northern Colorado since 2001, it can be safe to assume the number of wells using this aquifer has increased significantly.

There is concern the Dakota-Cheyenne aquifer may also be affected. The Dakota-Cheyenne aquifer is Colorado's largest water yielding aquifer east of the Rockies and spreads beneath the most populated areas of Boulder, Larimer, Weld, Morgan and Logan counties. The Dakota-Cheyenne aquifer is much older (deeper) than the Laramie-Fox Hills aquifer and is in a geological layer known to have uranium deposits. Powertech's proposed mining would take place above of the Dakota-Cheyenne aquifer.

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