The number of applications for mortgages to buy a home rose 6 percent during the first week of this year from the final week of December but remained 16 percent below the number a year earlier, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported.
Tag: U.S. economy
U.S. MEDIAN HOME PRICE JUMPS 5.2 PERCENT IN NOVEMBER
The median selling price of U.S. homes in November reached $434,700, the U.S. Census Bureau reported, a 5.2-percent increase year on year compared to a 4.7-percent bump in October, according to data service CoreLogic.
INFLATION KEEPS RISING
U.S. consumer prices grew by 3.4 percent in December, the Labor Department reported, surpassing November’s 3.1 percent and beating economists’ forecasts of 3.2 percent.
ECONOMIC UPDATE – MARKET OVERVIEW
Pick your country, take a trip around the world. By the hard facts and indisputable data, across the socioeconomic and geopolitical spectrum it’s a freak show run by political freaks.
SPECIAL REPORT: WAR IN THE RED SEA: ITS ECONOMIC IMPACT
Attacks on shipping in the Red Sea by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi faction have sent shipping costs soaring, adding to the price of cross-border trade and threatening to inflate prices once again.
2023 FINAL: BULLS VANQUISH BEARS
Following the midterm elections in the U.S. in November of 2022, we had forecast that the U.S. equity markets would spike in 2023. They did. The rally led all three U.S. stock indexes to a stellar year, concluding with nine consecutive weekly gains, the longest such streak in almost two decades.
WAREHOUSES HAVE THE MOST EMPTY SPACE SINCE 2020
Across the U.S., 5.2 percent of warehouse space stood empty in last year’s fourth quarter, up from 4.6 percent in the third and 3.1 percent in 2022’s final three months, real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield reported.
COVID HAS PERMANENTLY NARROWED CONSUMERS’ CHOICES
Choked supply chains during the COVID War cut the number of items that manufacturers could make. Product lines in everything from bed sheets to cat food narrowed. Now that the COVID era has largely passed and supply lines have re-established themselves, those missing items are not coming back, The Wall Street Journal reported.
HOME CONSTRUCTION STARTS AND PERMITS JUMP IN NOVEMBER
In November, builders began work on new homes at a clip that translates to an annual rate of 1.6 million housing units and filed permits to construct 1.5 million more, news service Quartz reported.
FACTORY CONSTRUCTION IS BOOMING BUT WILL FACTORY PRODUCTION FOLLOW?
The Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act and U.S. Chips and Science Act have dedicated funding to high-tech and clean energy investments. As a result, factories are being built in selected areas of the country at a pace not seen in decades.