Existing Homes Sales Inventory
Median Home Sales Prices
Looks to me like inventories are still working their way lower, and prices may be stabilizing as well.
Daily Archives: April 22, 2008 @ 11:35 pm (Tuesday)
2008-04-22 US Economic Releases
- Existing Home Sales
- House Price Index
- Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index
- ABC Consumer Confidence
Existing Home Sales (Mar)
| Survey | 4.92M |
| Actual | 4.93M |
| Prior | 5.03M |
| Revised | n/a |
Existing Home Sales MoM (Mar)
| Survey | -2.3% |
| Actual | -2.0% |
| Prior | 2.9% |
| Revised | n/a |
Better than expected.
Might really be a bottom forming.
House Price Index MoM (Feb)
| Survey | -1.5% |
| Actual | 0.6% |
| Prior | -1.1% |
| Revised | -1.0% |
Up? Who would have thought?
Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index
| Survey | -1 |
| Actual | 0 |
| Prior | 6 |
| Revised | n/a |
Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index TABLE
Yes, another number better than expected and not looking so bad?
Fiscal package kicking in soon as well.
Prices firm through the slowdown, wonder what they might do if the economy stabilizes?
ABC Consumer Confidence (Apr 20)
| Survey | n/a |
| Actual | -40 |
| Prior | -39 |
| Revised | n/a |
Still constant negative news on TV.
Bloomberg: ‘Silent Famine’ as Food Soars
Seems they still think it is about money.
Probably an actual shortage at this point.
The political response will be to give people more funds to buy food that does not exist and drive prices ever higher.
`Silent Famine’ as Food Soars, WFP Warns
by Jason Gale and Paul Gordon
(Bloomberg) A “silent famine” risks emerging in some Asian countries where food prices including rice are escalating beyond the reach of the poorest people, the World Food Program warned.
“There is food on the counters and on the shelves in stores but there is a certain population that cannot afford that food,” Paul Risley, a spokesman for the United Nations agency, said today. “There’s a risk of a silent famine.”
Record prices for rice and wheat are ratcheting up the cost to aid agencies of providing relief, Risley said from Bangkok. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said yesterday that rising food costs may hurt economic growth and threaten political security.
“In Asia, supply is not the main constraint, but the huge price increases are,” said Rajat Nag, managing director at the Asian Development Bank. “That has a very massive impact on the poor and we need to focus on the huge price increases.”
`We’re Struggling’
“We find we can’t buy as much rice as we thought we would be able to buy,” Risley said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. The agency feeds 28 million of the poorest Asians across 14 countries. “Because of the high prices right now, we’re struggling,” he said.