Daily News 5/26/2015
May 26, 2015
Tuesday – May 26
Housing news dominates the headlines this week. The Commerce Department reported on Tuesday that sales of newly constructed homes rebounded in April, up from the dip in March, as the spring buying season got underway. New Home Sales rose by 6.8% to an annual rate of 517,000, which was above the 510,000 expected. Since April 2014, sales are up a whopping 26%. The median price for a newly constructed home in April was $297,300, up 8.3% from a year ago. The report comes after a contrast in Existing Homes, which makes up a bulk of the market, which fell 3.3% in April.
Data from the Case Shiller 20-city Index on a year over year basis revealed that home prices rose by 5% from March 2014 to March 2015. Home prices have now risen year-over-year for 35 consecutive months following the housing bubble bust in 2007 and 2008. The 5% gain was above the 4.6% expected, while matching the February annual gain. From February to March, prices were up 0.9%. “The pattern of consistent gains is national and seen across all 20 cities covered by the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices,” said David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the index committee.
The last positive report today showed that May Consumer Confidence rose from April. The Index rose to 95.4 in May, above the 94 expected and up from April’s reading of 94.3. The report read that business conditions remained “good” last month, while the employment component said that those stating jobs are plentiful rose to 20.7% from 19%. The monthly Consumer Confidence Survey®, based on a probability-design random sample, is conducted for The Conference Board by Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and analytics around what consumers buy and watch.
