Existing Home Sales Report: September 2016

This week, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Existing Home Sales Report for September showing an increase with total home sales rising 3.2% since August climbing 0.6% above the level seen a year earlier.

Single family home sales also rose with sales climbing 4.1% from August rising 0.6% above the level seen a year earlier while the median selling price increased 5.6% over the same period.

Inventory of single family homes increased, rising 1.1% from August to 1.80 million units, falling 7.2% below the level seen in September 2015 which, along with the sales pace, resulted in a monthly supply of 4.4 months.

The following charts (click for full-screen dynamic version) shows national existing single family home sales, median home prices, inventory and months of supply.

Weekly Unemployment Claims: Initial and Continued October 21 2016

This weeks’s jobless claims report showed a notable increase to initial and a modest increase to continued unemployment claims as seasonally adjusted initial claims remained well below the 300K level.

Seasonally adjusted “initial” unemployment claims increased by 13,000 to 260,000 claims while seasonally adjusted "continued" unemployment claims increased by 7,000 to 2.057 million resulting in an “insured” unemployment rate of 1.5%.

New Residential Construction Report: September 2016

This week's New Residential Construction Report showed mixed results with total permit activity rising 6.3% since August while total starts declined a notable 9.0% over the same period.

Single family housing permits, the most leading of indicators, rose 0.4% from August to 739K single family units (SAAR), rising 4.4% above the level seen a year earlier and still remained well below levels seen at the peak in September 2005.

Single family housing starts rose 8.1% from August to 783K units (SAAR) rising 5.4% above the level seen a year earlier but still remained well below the levels seen at the peak in September 2005.

NAHB/Wells Fargo Home Builder Sentiment: October 2016

This week, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) released their latest Housing Market Index (HMI) showing that overall assessments of housing activity generally worsened in October with the composite HMI index falling to 63 while the "buyer traffic" index declined slightly to a level of 46.

Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization: September 2016

This week, the Federal Reserve released their monthly read of industrial production and capacity utilization showing slightly improving results in September with total industrial production rising 0.06% from August but dropping 1.03% below the level seen in September 2015.

Capacity utilization went flat from August dropping 1.38% below the level seen in September 2015 to stand at 75.36%.

It's important to note that industrial production is still showing significant weakness which, if all past periods were to serve at least as a rough guide, now clearly indicates notable trouble for the macro-economy.