Rates are rising – probably not enough to seriously hurt sectors such as housing, but will in due course if the momentum continues. In merely nine sessions, 10-year Treasury yields have gone up by 24 basis points to 2.28 percent, … Continued
U.S. housing continues to send mixed signals … has been that way for a while. August’s existing home sales will be reported later this morning. July was down 3.2 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.39 … Continued
Next week brings three important housing-related data points: the NAHB/Wells Fargo housing market index (September), existing home sales (August), and housing starts (August). In July, starts rose 2.1 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.21 million units, … Continued
There probably is an air of excitement among U.S. housing bulls – particularly the technically oriented ones. Sales of both new and existing homes have broken out of recent ranges. In June, new homes rose 3.5 percent month-over-month to a … Continued
Next week’s economic calendar is housing-heavy. Monday brings the NAHB/Wells Fargo housing market index for July, Tuesday housing starts for June, and Thursday existing home sales for June. Builder sentiment remained stuck at 58 for four months through May, before … Continued
The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. national home price index advanced 5.2 percent year-over-year in October. This was the fastest growth since July last year. However, annual price appreciation has been decelerating since peaking at 10.9 percent two years ago. The October 2013 … Continued
Directionally, ITB, the iShares Dow Jones Home Construction ETF, and U.S. homebuilder sentiment tend to move together. The correlation coefficient is far from perfect, but at 0.68 between May 2006 and November 2015, it is decent (Chart 1). The National … Continued
Relatively speaking, U.S. housing is going strong, with price being the major risk. Monthly data tend to be volatile. At a seasonally adjusted annual rate in August, sales of existing homes dropped 4.8 percent month-over-month to 5.31 million units, even … Continued
There is a dichotomy between U.S. sales of new and existing homes. This has been preceded by a dichotomy between how their median prices were diverging from each other. June saw existing homes jump to a seasonally adjusted annual rate … Continued
The July 2nd ITB 27.50 naked calls hypothetically written on June 24 ended up in the money by six cents. The ETF closed at $27.56 last Thursday. Calls were sold for $0.38, so, after assignment, it is now an effective … Continued