Tag Archives: Jobs

Economic growth so far this year has been "bittersweet" as housing takes a backseat in moving the recovery forward, Freddie Mac said Monday in its July 2014 Economic and Housing Outlook. But with employment bouncing back and household formations expected to improve, all is not last, says Freddie Mac VP and chief economist Frank Nothaft.

The Conference Board's Leading Economic Index (LEI) edged up 0.3 percent last month to 102.2, flattening out slightly after May's 0.7 percent pickup. Conference Board economist Ataman Oxyildirim attributed the increase to ongoing positive trends in the labor market and an improved outlook for new manufacturing orders, which have helped offset some of the weakness observed in housing so far this year.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released Monday the findings of its June 2014 Survey of Consumer Expectations (SCE), revealing a slight uptick in economic hopes among Americans as housing expectations remained flat. On the housing front, the median home price change expectation was little changed, dipping slightly to a median expected 3.9 percent over the next 12 months.

The U.S. labor market outperformed expectations by a wide margin in June, with gains in both April and May also revised upward.

In its latest barometer report, Trulia says new construction starts, existing-home sales and delinquency and foreclosure rates have all come closer to normalizing over the last quarter. One factor still hampering the recovery, however, is the unemployment rate among Millennials—a key group for household formation and first-time homeownership.

On Wednesday, Freddie Mac released its monthly Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) showing mixed signals for the U.S. housing market, with most markets struggling to improve at a pace faster than a slow crawl. Despite declining mortgage delinquencies, improving local employment, house price gains, and attractive mortgage rates, most housing markets remain weak due to weak home purchase mortgage applications.

Consumers are continuing to progress on the long journey toward restoring their faith in the American economy, according to a monthly Consumer Confidence Index report released by the Conference Board. The index, one of the leading predictors of economic growth in all sectors of the economy, now stands at 85.2, up from 82.2 in May. The largely positive findings could indicate that consumers are more ready to commit to larger, longer-term purchases.

Existing-home sales rose in May at their highest monthly growth rate in years as inventory continued to expand, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Monday. According to NAR, total existing-home sales jumped 4.9 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million. It was the biggest month-over-month boost since August 2011, when sales picked up 5.5 percent, the group reported.

The University of Michigan's measure of consumer sentiment dropped from 81.9 to 81.2 in June with the decline entirely spurred by a decline in the expectations index. While expectations turned slightly sour in June, the current conditions index experienced an increase from 94.5 to 95.4.

Though employment numbers have been in recovery, in a recent blog post for the company, RealtyTrac senior staff writer Octavio Nuiry argues that there is more to unemployment than percentages, and that a hidden actor is depressing housing market growth. Specifically, what concerns Nuiry most is the huge number of people dropping out of the labor force.