HI-TRANSFER

Today, the U.S. Census Bureau released its latest nominal read of retail sales showing a 0.1% increase from November and an increase of 6.5% on a year-over-year basis on an aggregate of all items including food, fuel and healthcare services.

Nominal "discretionary" retail sales including home furnishings, home garden and building materials, consumer electronics and department store sales increased 0.23% from November and increased 2.90% above the level seen in December 2010 while, adjusting for inflation, “real” discretionary retail sales declined 0.07% over the same period.

On a “nominal” basis, there had appeared to be “rough correlation” between strong home value appreciation and strong retail spending preceding the housing bust and an even stronger correlation when home values started to decline.

The following chart shows the year-over-year change to nominal discretionary retail sales and the year-over-year change to nominal the S&P/Case-Shiller Composite home price index since 1993 and since 2000.

As you can see there is, at the very least, a coincidental change to home values and consumer spending during the boom and then the bust, but as home values have continued to decline, retail spending has remained low but has not continued to consistently contract.

Looking at the chart below (click for full-screen dynamic version), adjusted for inflation (CPI for retail sales, CPI “less shelter” for S&P/Case-Shiller Composite) the “rough correlation” between the year-over-year change to the “discretionary” retail sales series and the year-over-year S&P/Case-Shiller Composite series seems now even more significant.

Today, the U.S. Census Bureau released their latest read of construction spending showing near-cycle low levels of spending in November for residential construction while indicating a slight improvement for total non-residential spending.

On a month-to-month basis, total residential spending increased 2.01% from October and rose 2.70% above the level seen in November 2010 while remaining a whopping 63.97% below the peak level seen in 2006.

Single family construction spending increased 1.52% since October and rose 2.42% since November 2010 but remained a whopping 76.82% below it's peak in 2006.

Non-residential construction spending increased 0.4% since October climbing 4.46% above the level seen in November 2010 but remained a whopping 34.66% below the peak level reached in October 2008.

The following charts (click for larger dynamic versions) show private residential construction spending, private residential single family construction spending and private non-residential construction spending broken out and plotted since 1993 along with the year-over-year, month-to-month and peak percent change to each since 1994 and 2000 – 2005.

The latest release of the Fannie Mae Monthly Summary indicated that total serious single family delinquency went flat in November while remaining at distressed levels.

In November, 3.13% of non-credit enhanced loans went seriously delinquent while the level was 9.32% of credit enhanced loans resulting in an overall total single family delinquency of 4%.

The following charts (click for larger ultra-dynamic and surf-able chart) show what Fannie Mae terms the count of “Seriously Delinquent” loans as a percentage of all loans on their books.

It’s important to understand that Fannie Mae does NOT segregate foreclosures from delinquent loans when reporting these numbers.

Yesterday, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Pending Home Sales Report for November showing that home sales increased with the seasonally adjusted national index jumping a notable 7.3% since October and increasing 5.93% above the level seen in November 2010.

Meanwhile, the NARs chief economist Lawrence Yun suggests that the rice in contract activity should portend an equivalent rise to existing home sales though purchase failures have been running unusually high.

"Housing affordability conditions are at a record high and there is a pent-up demand from buyers who’ve been on the sidelines, but contract failures have been running unusually high... November is doing reasonably well in comparison with the past year. The sustained rise in contract activity suggests that closed existing-home sales, which are the important final economic impact figures, should continue to improve in the months ahead,..."

Also, it's important to note that the NAR reports that the pending home sales numbers were apparently not affected by the recent and dramatic existing home sales benchmark revisions.

"Pending home sales are not affected by the recently published rebenchmarking of existing-home sales because the index uses a different methodology based directly on contract signings, and is adjusted for seasonality."

The following chart shows the seasonally adjusted national pending home sales index along with the percent change on a year-over-year basis as well as the percent change from the peak set in 2005 (click for larger version).

Note... be sure to bookmark the overall S&P/Case-Shiller Dashboard or the Scary Housing Dashboard of the weakest markets for a real-time view of all the markets tracked by S&P.

The latest release of the S&P/Case-Shiller (CSI) home price indices for October reported that the non-seasonally adjusted Composite-10 price index declined 1.09% since September while the Composite-20 index declined 1.23% over the same period with both measures continuing to decline notably since last year.

The latest CSI data clearly indicates that the price trends are experiencing a declining trend into the typically less active summer and fall season and as I recently pointed out, the more timely and less distorted Radar Logic RPX data is starting to capture notable falling prices driven primarily by seasonality.

The 10-city composite index declined 3.02% as compared to October 2010 while the 20-city composite declined 3.40% over the same period.

Topping the list of regional peak decliners was Las Vegas at -60.66%, Phoenix at -55.79%, Miami at -50.80%, Tampa at -46.78% and Detroit at -44.12%.

Additionally, both of the broad composite indices show significant peak declines slumping -31.90% for the 10-city national index and -32.06% for the 20-city national index on a peak comparison basis.

To better visualize today’s results use Blytic.com to view the full release.

The following charts (click for larger version) shows the percent change to single family home prices given by the Case-Shiller Indices as compared to each metros respective price peak set between 2005 and 2007 as well as annual and monthly changes.



Additionally, in order to add some historical context to the perspective, I updated my “then and now” CSI charts that compare our current circumstances to the data seen during 90s housing decline.

To create the following annual and normalized charts I simply aligned the CSI data from the last month of positive year-over-year gains for both the current decline and the 90s housing bust and plotted the data side-by-side (click for larger version).


The “peak” chart compares the percentage change, comparing monthly CSI values to the peak value seen just prior to the first declining month all the way through the downturn and the full recovery of home prices.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) publishes the results of a weekly applications survey that covers roughly 50 percent of all residential mortgage originations and tracks the average interest rate for 30 year and 15 year fixed rate mortgages as well as the volume of both purchase and refinance applications.

The purchase application index has been highlighted as a particularly important data series as it very broadly captures the demand side of residential real estate for both new and existing home purchases.

The latest data is showing that the average rate for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage (from FHA and conforming GSE data) declined yet again, dropping 5 basis points to 4.03% since last week while the purchase application volume declined 8.2% and the refinance application climbed 9.3% over the same period.

With rates trending ever lower, the economy seemingly near recession and the FOMC members becoming more dovish by the day, it will be interesting to see how far rates on the long end can decline.  All things being equal, falling home prices, declining purchase applications and record low long lending rates all appear to indicate a deflationary for the macro-economy.

The following chart shows the average interest rate for 30 year and 15 year fixed rate mortgages since 2006 as well as the purchase, refinance and composite loan volumes (click for larger dynamic full-screen version).

Today, the U.S. Census Bureau released its latest nominal read of retail sales showing a 0.2% increase from October and an increase of 6.7% on a year-over-year basis on an aggregate of all items including food, fuel and healthcare services.

Nominal "discretionary" retail sales including home furnishings, home garden and building materials, consumer electronics and department store sales increased 0.34% from October and increased 3.68% above the level seen in November 2010 while, adjusting for inflation, “real” discretionary retail sales declined 0.08% over the same period.

On a “nominal” basis, there had appeared to be “rough correlation” between strong home value appreciation and strong retail spending preceding the housing bust and an even stronger correlation when home values started to decline.

The following chart shows the year-over-year change to nominal discretionary retail sales and the year-over-year change to nominal the S&P/Case-Shiller Composite home price index since 1993 and since 2000.

As you can see there is, at the very least, a coincidental change to home values and consumer spending during the boom and then the bust, but as home values have continued to decline, retail spending has remained low but has not continued to consistently contract.

Looking at the chart below (click for full-screen dynamic version), adjusted for inflation (CPI for retail sales, CPI “less shelter” for S&P/Case-Shiller Composite) the “rough correlation” between the year-over-year change to the “discretionary” retail sales series and the year-over-year S&P/Case-Shiller Composite series seems now even more significant.

As I have noted in the past, since the home price index data provided by Radar Logic is more timely, unadjusted and un-smoothed it is particularly useful for gaining deeper visibility over our housing markets.

As for the latest trends, it’s important to note that the 25-MSA Composite is continuing to show significant year-over-year declines and, after having broken well below the low set in March of 2009 (double-dipping) earlier this year and then rising throughout the spring/summer selling season, is now clearly in decline as the data moves into the period of the year with the least number of transactions.

The latest data shows that as of October, prices have declined 4.33% below the level seen in October 2010 while continuing to turn down from a seasonal peak reached in mid-June.

With the spring/summer selling season now complete and declining prices now registering with regularity, there is nowhere for prices to go but down. Look for a declining trend to continue to materialize and likely run into March or April of 2012.

The latest release of the Fannie Mae Monthly Summary indicated that total serious single family delinquency went flat in October while remaining at distressed levels.

In October, 3.11% of non-credit enhanced loans went seriously delinquent while the level was 9.41% of credit enhanced loans resulting in an overall total single family delinquency of 4%.

The following charts (click for larger ultra-dynamic and surf-able chart) show what Fannie Mae terms the count of “Seriously Delinquent” loans as a percentage of all loans on their books.

It’s important to understand that Fannie Mae does NOT segregate foreclosures from delinquent loans when reporting these numbers.

Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Pending Home Sales Report for October showing that home sales increased with the seasonally adjusted national index jumping a notable 10.41% since September and increasing 9.15% above the level seen in October 2010.

Meanwhile, the NARs chief economist Lawrence Yun hopes that today's numbers indicate that the buyers are coming back to the market.

"Home sales have been plodding along at a sub-par level while interest rates are hovering at record lows and there is a pent-up demand from buyers who normally would have entered the market in recent years. We hope this is indicates more buyers are taking advantage of the excellent affordability conditions..."

The following chart shows the seasonally adjusted national pending home sales index along with the percent change on a year-over-year basis as well as the percent change from the peak set in 2005 (click for larger version).

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) publishes the results of a weekly applications survey that covers roughly 50 percent of all residential mortgage originations and tracks the average interest rate for 30 year and 15 year fixed rate mortgages as well as the volume of both purchase and refinance applications.

The purchase application index has been highlighted as a particularly important data series as it very broadly captures the demand side of residential real estate for both new and existing home purchases.

The latest data is showing that the average rate for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage (from FHA and conforming GSE data) declined 4 basis points to 4.10% since last week while the purchase application volume declined 0.8% and the refinance application slumped 15.3% over the same period.

With rates at or near generational lows (including the 10-year T-Bill), the economy seemingly near recession and the FOMC members becoming more dovish by the day, it will be interesting to see how low rates on the long end can decline.

The following chart shows the average interest rate for 30 year and 15 year fixed rate mortgages since 2006 as well as the purchase, refinance and composite loan volumes (click for larger dynamic full-screen version).

Note... be sure to bookmark the overall S&P/Case-Shiller Dashboard or the Scary Housing Dashboard of the weakest markets for a real-time view of all the markets tracked by S&P.

Today’s release of the S&P/Case-Shiller (CSI) home price indices for September reported that the non-seasonally adjusted Composite-10 price index declined 0.42% since August while the Composite-20 index declined 0.64% over the same period with both measures continuing to decline notably since last year.

The latest CSI data clearly indicates that the price trends are experiencing a declining trend into the typically less active summer and fall season and as I recently pointed out, the more timely and less distorted Radar Logic RPX data is starting to capture notable falling prices driven primarily by seasonality.

The 10-city composite index declined 3.27% as compared to August 2010 while the 20-city composite declined 3.59% over the same period.

Topping the list of regional peak decliners was Las Vegas at -60.05%, Phoenix at -55.93%, Miami at -50.22%, Tampa at -46.50% and Detroit at -42.41%.

Additionally, both of the broad composite indices show significant peak declines slumping -31.18% for the 10-city national index and -31.26% for the 20-city national index on a peak comparison basis.

To better visualize today’s results use Blytic.com to view the full release.

The following charts (click for larger version) shows the percent change to single family home prices given by the Case-Shiller Indices as compared to each metros respective price peak set between 2005 and 2007 as well as annual and monthly changes.



Additionally, in order to add some historical context to the perspective, I updated my “then and now” CSI charts that compare our current circumstances to the data seen during 90s housing decline.

To create the following annual and normalized charts I simply aligned the CSI data from the last month of positive year-over-year gains for both the current decline and the 90s housing bust and plotted the data side-by-side (click for larger version).


The “peak” chart compares the percentage change, comparing monthly CSI values to the peak value seen just prior to the first declining month all the way through the downturn and the full recovery of home prices.