Last Week in the News
Sales of existing homes unexpectedly rose 2.9% in February, the first increase in seven months, the National Association of REALTORS® said March 24. “The improvement is another sign that the market is stabilizing,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. The median existing-home sales price in February was $195,900, down 8.2% from a year earlier.
February sales of new single-family homes fell 1.8% to a 13-year low, the Commerce Department said March 26. The decline was slightly worse than expected. The median new-home sales price in February was $244,100, down 2.7% from the level of a year ago.
Orders for durable goods — items expected to last three or more years — fell 1.7% in February, worse than the 1% increase economists had predicted, the Commerce Department reported March 26. Demand for manufacturing equipment plunged 13.3%, the largest amount on record.
On March 27, the Commerce Department confirmed data showing that the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the value of all goods and services produced in the United States, crawled home at a 0.6% annual rate for the 2007 October-to-December quarter. In the prior quarter, GDP sizzled at 4.9%.
Consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of the U.S. economy, edged up just 0.1% in February, the weakest spending performance in 17 months, the Commerce Department said March 28. The modest gain was in line with forecasts.
For the week ending March 27, interest rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages nudged downward, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey®.
For the week ending March 21, mortgage applications shot up 48.1%, the Mortgage Bankers Association said. Refinances surged 82.2% while purchase business improved 10.6%.
Economic news due out this week includes the highly anticipated unemployment report on April 4.
