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Minnesota Mortgage Blog

July 27th, 2011 10:55 AM

New home construction in June saw some good gains, according to the latest data released by Census Bureau last week. Construction starts on for private homes in June hit at a surprisingly optimistic rate of 629 000, which was a 14 6 percent over May's revised estimate of 549,000. Looking at construction starts for single-family homes in specific, June's pace reached 453,000, which was 9.4 percent over May's revised figure of 414,000.

The one dip in construction was with completions of housing construction for June, which were at a rate 535,000, marking a 1.7 percent drop from May's revised estimate of 544,000. The good news was that completions for single-family homes in June continued at a rate of 436,000; which was the same as May's revised rate of 436,000.

To match the uneven recovery in real estate, initial claims for jobless benefits were up for the week ending July 16, after a decrease the previous week, according to the latest data from the Employment and Training Administration. Claims for the week hit 418,000, an jump of 10,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 408,000. The four-week moving average was 421,250, a decrease of 2,750 from the previous week's revised average of 424,000.

Meanwhile, sales of existing single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, declined to an annual rate of 4.77 million, which was 0.8 percent below May's 4.81 million, and 8.8 percent below the 5.23 million unit level in June 2010, the National Association of Realtors reported last week.

The reason for the June drop was due to an unexpected increase in contract cancellations and mixed geographic performance. While the Midwest and South posted an increase for June, the Northeast and West saw losses. Also, in terms of segments, condominium sales posted a drop.

Looking at employment, the Employment and Training Administration reported that claims for unemployment insurance for recently jobless workers for the week ending July 16 increased to 418,000, which was 10,000 more from from the previous week's 408,000. That said, the total number of initial jobless claims for the week ending July 9 dipped to 3,698,000, according to the administration.

Overall, any economic recovery seems to be seeing a slowing pace. According to the Conference Board's latest figures, the Leading Economic Index (which combines a number of economic indicators) for June increased 0.3 percent to 115.3 (a baseline of 100 was set for the LEI in 2004). This came after a 0.8 percent increase in May, and a 0.3 percent decline in April, the Conference Board reported last week.

This week, we can expect:

Tuesday — Consumer confidence for July from the Conference Board; and June new home sales from the Census Bureau.
Wednesday — Durable goods orders for June from the Census Bureau.
Thursday — Initial jobless claims for the week ending July 22 from the Employment and Training Administration.
Friday — Second quarter GDP from the Bureau of Economic Analysis; and consumer sentiment data for July from the University of Michigan.

Posted by Jamie Larkin, Mortgage Advisor on July 27th, 2011 10:55 AMPost a Comment (0)

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