Healthy Gain in New Home Sales.

Redbook Chain Store Sales (week ended 7/23/2016)

– Store Sales year/year +0.6%. Previous was +0.4%

 

S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index (May 2016)

– 20-city, seasonally adjusted month/month -0.1%. Previous was -0.2%
– 20-city, not seasonally adjusted month/month +0.9%. Previous was +1.1%
– 20-city, not seasonally adjusted year/year +5.2%. Previous was +5.6%

I believe that flat home prices are needed. For too many middle class people homeownership has become impossible. Rising prices, declining real wages, higher healthcare costs and tougher
mortgage qualifying standards are all contributory. What we need is a couple of years of flat home prices.

Note that these are prices for existing home not new ones and this data is for 20-cities not the entire nation.

 
New Home Sales (June 2016)

– New Home Sales seasonally adjusted, annualized rate 592,000. Previous was 572,000.

This is a healthy gain.

 

Consumer Confidence (July 2016)

– Consumer Confidence 97.3. Previous was 97.4

This metric is by the Conference Board. This is supposed to be a leading indicator of Consumer Spending

 

Richmond Federal Reserve Manufacturing Index (July 2016)

– level +10. Previous revised to -10.