S&P/Case-Shiller: January 2015

Today's release of the S&P/Case-Shiller (CSI) home price indices for January reported that the non-seasonally adjusted National index declined from December with prices falling 0.05% while the Composite-10 city index declined 0.01% and the Composite-20 city index declined 0.03% over the same period.

On an annual basis, the National index increased 4.47% above the level seen in January 2014 while the Composite-10 city index increased 4.37% and the Composite-20 city index increased 4.56% over the same period.

On a peak basis, all three indices still show significant peak declines slumping 9.73% for the National index, -17.01% for the Composite-10 city index and -16.26% for the Composite-20 city index on a peak comparison basis.

Pending Home Sales: February 2015

Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Pending Home Sales Report for February showing that pending home sales increased notably with the seasonally adjusted national index increasing 3.1% from January to stand 12.0% above the level seen in February 2014.

The following chart shows the seasonally adjusted national pending home sales index along with the percent change on a year-over-year basis as well as the percent change from the peak set in 2005 (click for larger version).

New Residential Construction Report: February 2015

Today’s New Residential Construction Report showed mixed results with total permit activity increasing 3% since January while total starts dropped a whopping 17.0% over the same period.

Single family housing permits, the most leading of indicators, declined 6.2% from January to 620K single family units (SAAR), and rose 2.8% above the level seen a year earlier but still remained well below levels seen at the peak in September 2005.

NAHB/Wells Fargo Home Builder Sentiment: March 2015

Today, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) released their latest Housing Market Index (HMI) showing that overall assessments of housing activity declined in March with the composite HMI index falling to 53 while the "buyer traffic" index declined to a level of 37 from 39 in the prior month.

Overall, conditions for new home construction appear to have softened some recently and still remain below the peak assessments see prior to the Great Recession.

Weekly Unemployment Claims: Initial and Continued March 05 2015

Today’s jobless claims report showed a an increase to both initial and insured unemployment claims as seasonally adjusted initial claims remained above the 300K level.

Seasonally adjusted “initial” unemployment claims increased 7,000 to 320,000 claims while seasonally adjusted “insured” claims increased by 17,000 to 2.421 million resulting in an “insured” unemployment rate of 1.8%.

ADP National Employment Report: February 2015

Yesterday, private staffing and business services firm ADP released the latest installment of their National Employment Report indicating that the situation for private employment in the U.S. improved in February as private employers added 212,000 jobs in the month bringing the total employment level 2.62% above the level seen in February 2014.

Look for Friday’s BLS Employment Situation Report to likely show somewhat similar trends.