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Each day the Research staff takes a look at recently released economic indicators, addressing what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update highlights jobless claims and new home sales.
- The new jobless claims report for the week ending June 18th show no signs of stability. The report showed a 9,000 rise in jobless claims, after a 6,000 upward adjustment from the week before. However, data for six states had to be estimated due to some technical difficulties, so next week’s revision may provide more encouraging news.
- The new claims stand at 429,000, with a 4-week average at 426,250. That is still above the 400,000 level needed for significant improvement in the employment market. The continuing claims didn’t change much.
- If jobless claims stays up like the past week and do not trend down, NAR expects less than 1.5 million net new jobs in the next 12 months, which would barely lower the unemployment rate.
- Sales of new homes fell 2.1 percent in May to a 319,000. This is better than experts were expecting. Months-supply now stands at 6.2 months or 166,000 new homes on the market, down from 6.3 in April and from 6.9 in March.
- Supply is at 50 years low which is good for the overhang of the foreclosure inventory. Low supply also means that prices are picking up with a median price inching 2.6 percent to $222,600 and the average increasing 0.5 percent to $266,400.
- For more on the difference between the new homes and existing home sales markets, read this article by Lawrence Yun >
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