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QUOTE OF THE WEEK... "As far as I'm concerned, 'whom' is a word that was
invented to make everyone sound like a butler." --Calvin Trillin,
American writer
INFO THAT HITS US WHERE WE LIVE ... We don't believe they used the word "whom," but the Census Bureau last week served up a very fine New Home Sales report. New single-family home sales shot up 10.8% in December, surging to a 544,000 unit annual rate and they are now up 9.9% over a year ago. Sales gains were registered in all major regions. The fast pace of sales dropped the supply to 5.2 months even with inventories going up by 6,000 units. The net of all this is that 2015 was the best year for new home sales since 2007. This evidence of housing market strength was also supported by the prior week's big jump in existing home sales.
Even though individual markets may be experiencing slower recoveries, analysts feel the rising tide of the national data will eventually lift pretty much all local boats. The Case-Shiller home price index was up 0.9% in November and up 5.3% over a year ago, when the annual gain was just 4.6%. The FHFA index of prices for homes bought with conforming mortgages was up 0.5% in November, 5.9% higher than a year ago. Heck, even the Pending Home Sales index of contract signings on existing homes went up a tick in December after a few monthly declines, and there have now been 16 months in a row of year-over-year increases, the latest showing a 4.2% gain over December 2014.
BUSINESS TIP OF THE WEEK... Want to get rid of a lot of that stress? Stop worrying about the results. Just focus on what you're doing right now and make every effort to do the best job you can.
INFO THAT HITS US WHERE WE LIVE ... We don't believe they used the word "whom," but the Census Bureau last week served up a very fine New Home Sales report. New single-family home sales shot up 10.8% in December, surging to a 544,000 unit annual rate and they are now up 9.9% over a year ago. Sales gains were registered in all major regions. The fast pace of sales dropped the supply to 5.2 months even with inventories going up by 6,000 units. The net of all this is that 2015 was the best year for new home sales since 2007. This evidence of housing market strength was also supported by the prior week's big jump in existing home sales.
Even though individual markets may be experiencing slower recoveries, analysts feel the rising tide of the national data will eventually lift pretty much all local boats. The Case-Shiller home price index was up 0.9% in November and up 5.3% over a year ago, when the annual gain was just 4.6%. The FHFA index of prices for homes bought with conforming mortgages was up 0.5% in November, 5.9% higher than a year ago. Heck, even the Pending Home Sales index of contract signings on existing homes went up a tick in December after a few monthly declines, and there have now been 16 months in a row of year-over-year increases, the latest showing a 4.2% gain over December 2014.
BUSINESS TIP OF THE WEEK... Want to get rid of a lot of that stress? Stop worrying about the results. Just focus on what you're doing right now and make every effort to do the best job you can.
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