Home Prices Flat. New Home Sales up.

FHFA House Price Index  (April 2014)

– month/month +0.0%. Previous was +0.7%

– year/year  +5.9%. Previous was +6.4%.

I see this as a very positive sign.  Higher home prices mean fewer homeowners and less discretionary spending.  For the sake of the economy we should hope for home prices to stay flat or, at least, not exceed CPI-U.

S&P Case-Shiller House Price Index (April 2014)

– 20-city seasonally adjusted, month/month  +0.2%. Previous was +1.2%

– 20-city, not seasonally adjusted, month/month  +1.1%. Previous was +0.9%

– 20-city, not seasonally adjusted year/year +10.8%. Previous was +12.4%.

 

New Home Sales (May 2014)

– New Home Sales (seasonally adjusted, annualized 504,000. Previous was 425,000.

 

ICSC-Goldman Store Sales (week ended 6/21/2014)

– Store Sales week/week +2.0%.  Previous was +0.4%

– Store Sales year/year +4.1%.  Previous was +3.1%

Redbook (week ended 6/21/2014)

– Store Sales year/year +3.3%.  Previous was +3.5%

This seeming inability of ICSC and Redbook to get on the same page is frustrating and illustrates the need for more accurate ways of measuring data.

The Consumer Metrics Institute Absolute Demand index – a near real time metric of online shopping – was up last week after a downward trend of about 18 days.

 

Consumer Confidence (June 2014)

– Consumer Confidence 85.2. Previous was 82.2.

This is the Conference Board’s metric.  It surveys consumers and is supposed to measure spending intentions for the next 90 days.

 

Richmond Federal Reserve Manufacturing Index  (June 2014)

– Change in Index level +3. Previous was +7.