Posted on July - 02 - 2011
News on existing home prices in the U.S. was disappointing again in March, according to the S&P Case-Shiller report. The 10-city composite index was -0.6% month to month and -2.9% year over year. The comparable numbers for the 20-city composite index were -0.8% and -3.6%.
In 19 of the 20 major cities covered in the report, existing home prices were down on a year-over-year basis. The five most dramatic declines occurred in Minneapolis (-10.0%), Phoenix (-8.4%), Chicago and Portland (both -7.6%) and Seattle (-7.5%).
The only city with an increase in year-over-year resale prices was Washington, D.C., at +4.3%.
Given the current political climate, that may not sit well with a lot of people. Washington is a government town. Many will feel the city is insulated from the problems of the rest of America.
Its a matter of concern if Washington homeowners are experiencing greater prosperity and home price stability than elsewhere in the country.
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Posted on July - 02 - 2011
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Posted on July - 01 - 2011
As expected the Bank of Canada left its policy rate unchanged at 1% this morning.
At the global level, the Bank’s perception is that the economic recovery is proceeding broadly as expected. However the risks related to European peripheral economies have increased according to the Bank. Commodity prices are expected to remain elevated which is consistent with Governor Carney’s view that they are in the midst of a supercycle. This combined with excess demand in major emerging-markets are contributing to broader global inflationary pressures.
In Canada GDP growth in Q1 was in-line with the BoC projection of the last MPR. And although supply chain disruptions are expected to restrain growth in the current quarter their effect will erode over time. On the inflation front, the BoC still expects total CPI to converge with core inflation at 2% by the middle of 2012. A Read full post…
Posted on June - 30 - 2011
All regions had an improvement in their economic activity index in the three months through April. The largest gain was in the still depressed Great Lakes region driven by a surge in both auto and machinery production. The annual growth pace in the last three months jumped to 10.0% in Ohio, 8.3% in Michigan and 6.4% in Indiana. The economic activity index rose to 6.9% in South Carolina which now has a significant share of the auto industry (BMW) but Kentucky (Toyota) had only 4.0% growth in the last three months.
Auto production will weaken in the spring due both to consumers turning more cautious in the face of soaring gasoline price and increasing general inflation and to production cutbacks forced by shortages of Japanese auto parts. The impact will be much bigger in the Southeastern than in the Great Lakes states.
The growth rates are the state economic growth indexes calculated by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank from state employment and income data which are benchmarked to approximately track national GDP growth.
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