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Economy

Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey Crashes, Hit To Texas Housing Market Awaits

The Dallas Fed Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey for March just crashed to the worst levels since the survey began. The production index cratered from 16.4 to negative 35. New orders dropped to negative 41.3, and the growth rate of new orders index fell to negative 44.9. The employment index fell to negative 23.0, and the hours worked index fell to negative 22.4 "The general business activity index plunged from 1.2 to -70.0, and the company outlook index fell from 3.6 to -65.6. Both March readings are the lowest since the survey began in June 2004." [...]

North Texas Home Sales Climb Higher In February As Yields Collapse

North Texas home sales rose again in February as record low mortgage interest rates continued to support the local real estate market. Dallas-Fort Worth saw sales rise 8 percent in February while pending sales were roughly 13 percent higher. The median price of a DFW home jumped 6 percent compared to a year ago, while the average price rose 7.7 percent. The supply of North Texas homes on the market dropped 13 percent to 2.6 months of supply. Denton County homes sales spiked 18 percent higher last month while pending sales rose about 15 percent [...]

New Home Sales Soar In August, DFW Included

The Census Bureau reported new home sales for August at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 713,000 for August, This was above expectations and sales for July were revised upward as well. The median price of a new home contracted in August was $328,400, while the average price of a new home shot up to $404,200. Lower rates obviously spurred more borrowers to open up their checkbooks in August. Months of supply for new homes stood at 5.5 in August, down almost 13 percent from the 6.3 months of supply seen last year. As [...]

Diminishing Returns? July New Home Sales Up 4.3%

The Census Bureau reported sales of new single-family homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 635,000 in July. That's up 4.3 percent from July of last year, but down 12.8 percent below the sharply revised June numbers. The median price of a new home contracted in July was $312,800 while the average price of a new home contracted was $388,000, both lower than prices last year. The median new home price for July was $14,700 (about 4.5%) less than July of last year. The supply of new homes stood at 6.4 months in July, [...]

Things Get Ugly For Denton-Based Sally Beauty

Things just got ugly for Denton-based Sally Beauty supply. The international retailer and distributor of professional beauty supplies saw its stock plummet after Amazon announced its own professional beauty store. This is not exactly great news for one of Denton's largest businesses. Amazon is a virtually unregulated monopoly on multiple fronts with huge tax advantages to many of its competitors. Amazon Beauty customers will still need a license to purchase professional use products, but Amazon is playing by a different set of rules as regulators continue to turn a blind eye to Amazon's monopolistic business [...]

Denton County Home Sales Climb In May, City of Denton Sees All-Time High For Prices

Denton County home sales rose 3 percent compared to the same month last year, driven by a the precipitous drop in mortgage rates which are now back below a 4-handle. The increase in home sales this spring has offset the weak start to the year during the first quarter. The average price of a Denton County home was roughly $368,525 in May, up 4 percent from prices last year. The inventory of homes for sale in Denton County rose 25 percent, hitting 3.4 months of supply. New home sales continued to fare better than the [...]

Stagnating Home Sales, Mortgage Rates & Job Growth But The Fed Only Has Eyes For Wall Street

Home sales are stagnating, mortgage rates are falling and job growth is now waning. What's not to love? Today's nonfarm payrolls report was a resounding thud with only 75,000 jobs added in May. Previous months were revised downward as well. Everywhere you look, cracks are beginning to appear in the carefully varnished edifice the Federal Reserve likes to call an economy. Maybe this is why there were 13 Federal Reserve officials hitting the airwaves this week to talk up their most favored metric of economic validation, the U.S. stock market. Earlier in the week we [...]

Denton County Employment Growth Still Solid, Why Are Home Sales Stagnating?

Denton County employment growth is still humming along. The Dallas-Fort Worth area continues to add jobs. Even with the job growth, home price gains in the DFW area continue to slow. This is confirmed in the recent numbers from Case-Shiller. Along with many professional PhD economists, the Case-Shiller committee seems to be puzzled that the housing market isn't firing on all cylinders given the recent plunge in mortgage interest rates. "Given the broader economic picture, housing should be doing better." Even Freddie Mac's deputy chief economist seems to be perplexed that the housing market isn't [...]

New Home Sales Jump 7 Percent In April But Momentum Is Fading

The Census Bureau reported new home sales in April which rose 7 percent compared to the same time a year ago. Sales (contract signings) for April posted at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 673,000 units. This was close to expectations, but interestingly the April figure represented a rather large 7 percent drop from revised March numbers. The sales numbers for the previous three months were revised higher. The median price of a new home rose in April to $342,200, while the average price of a new home contracted in April rose to $393700. This [...]

Existing Home Sales Decline For 14th Consecutive Month

The National Association of Realtors reported existing home sales for April which came in short of expectations. Existing sales in April posted at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.19 million units. This was 0.4 percent lower than March and 4.4 percent lower than April of 2018. According to NAR the median price of an existing home rose 3.6% in April to $267,300. The average price of an existing home in the U.S. rose 2.5% to $305,200. The inventory of existing homes for sale in April stood at 4.2 months, up 5% from a year [...]

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