Holiday Shopping Season, Non-farm Payrolls report, CoreLogic cash home sales
November 28, 2016
The National Retail Federation (NRF) reports that 154 million consumers spent their hard-earned dollars over the Thanksgiving Day weekend, as the unofficial holiday shopping season kicked off. Americans spent an average of $289, down from $300 last year and were reeled in by blockbuster bargains from retailers. A large amount of shopping was done via the Internet, which set sales records for online shopping. The NRF’s survey of buyers say 44% bought online and 40% went to a store to make their purchases.
The closely watched Non-farm Payrolls report will be released on Friday where it is expected that employers added 180,000 new workers in November. The Jobs Report is a key metric in the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rate policy. The Federal Open Market Committee meeting will take place on December 13-14 where it is expected that the short-term Fed Funds Rate will rise to the 0.50% to 0.75% range from the current levels of 0.25% to 0.50% levels. Potential borrowers whom will be directly impacted will be those looking for home equity, car and personal loans.
A leading provider of consumer, financial, and property information and analytics firm, CoreLogic, reports that cash sales in August made up 31% of all home sales, up for the second month in a row. The 31% is down 1.5% from a year ago, though still above the pre-crisis number of 25% of total sales. CoreLogic says that if the downward trend continues, the share of cash sales should decrease to 25% by mid-2019 and comes after last month’s prediction of of a time range in mid-2018.
