Content about chief economist

October 31, 2012

After the storm: Dark clouds, green lining

Long before Hurricane Sandy arrived, hardware stores throughout the Eastern Seaboard found themselves swamped with customers trying to stock up on everything from batteries to rubber gloves. But now that the worst is over -- and property damage estimates are in the $50 billion range -- the effect on the home improvement industry is coming into focus.

May 24, 2012

Freddie Mac: Housing market showing recovery

First-quarter economic data from the office of the chief economist at Freddie Mac showed a 2.2% growth rate, slower than the previous quarter, but better than three of the past four quarters. The slower growth primarily reflected less housing inventory accumulation and a dip in nonresidential construction. Personal consumption expenditures grew at a 15.3% annual rate, reflecting continuing strength in consumer durables (such as cars and kitchen appliances). Also, residential fixed investment (RFI) added 0.4 percentage points to the quarter’s economic growth.

March 21, 2012

1.6 million housing units in ‘shadow’ inventory

CoreLogic, a provider of analytical information about the housing market, reported that the current residential shadow inventory as of January 2012 was 1.6 million units, approximately the same level reported in October 2011. CoreLogic estimates shadow inventory by calculating the number of distressed properties not currently listed on multiple listing services (MLSs) that are seriously delinquent, in foreclosure and real estate owned (REO) by lenders.

February 23, 2011

Existing-home sales increase in January

Existing-home sales estimates began 2011 on a positive note: up 2.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.36 million. That's up from a downwardly revised 5.22 million in December.

According to the estimate from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released Wednesday morning, existing-home sales are 5.3% ahead of the 5.09 million place in January 2010.