From HousingWire:
Existing home sales reverse course, increase in September
After falling for three straight months, existing home sales reversed course in September, posting an increase, according to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors.
Total existing home sales, completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 0.7% in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.39 million in September. This is up from 5.35 million in August.
This slight increase beat expectations which, according to one expert who served as Fannie Mae’s chief economist for more than 20 years, were expected to drop.
…
However, sales remain 1.5% below September 2016, and is the second lowest pace over the past year.“Home sales in recent months remain at their lowest level of the year and are unable to break through, despite considerable buyer interest in most parts of the country,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said. “Realtors this fall continue to say the primary impediments stifling sales growth are the same as they have been all year: not enough listings, especially at the lower end of the market, and fast-rising prices that are straining the budgets of prospective buyers.”
“Sales activity likely would have been somewhat stronger if not for the fact that parts of Texas and South Florida – hit by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma – saw temporary, but notable declines,” Yun said.
The median existing home price for all housing types increase 4.2% annually in September to $245,100, up from $235,200 last year. This marks the 67th straight month of annual home price increases.
…
Housing inventory saw relief as it rose 1.6% to 1.9 million existing homes for sale in September. But inventory remains 6.4% below last year’s 2.03 million homes, and has fallen annually for 28 consecutive months. Unsold inventory decreased to a 4.2-month supply at the current sales pace, down from 4.5 months last year.
US equities are now “at the most offensive level of overvaluation in history” – even worse than in 1929 and 2000.
@davidfrum
The Trump bull market of 2009-2017 is something to behold,
not even Obama presiding over almost all of it could dampen it
actually, it was Bernanke presiding over it
@jdice03
Don’t recall President Obama bragging about the stock market on Twitter 🤔
👉 Obama’s stock market: 236%
👉 Trump’s stock market: 13%
Yes, but these are different times. We should compare apples to apples, 1929 and 2000 have nothing in common with today’s markets. Just rates and the rise of index funds alone change everything.
exjersey says:
October 21, 2017 at 8:38 am
US equities are now “at the most offensive level of overvaluation in history” – even worse than in 1929 and 2000.
@NYDailyNews
Republicans eye capping 401(k) pretax contributions at $2,400 a year
Pumps,
Low rates are the gasoline. Index funds and HFTs will make this time around different and I think in a very not good way. How are those ETFs going to have liquidity during the trading day when the market starts to drop in a meaningful way? It used to be the machines could knock out 1,000 trades per second and that number may be low with better tech today than even a few years ago. Can the circuit breakers even keep up? The markets seem like they still have legs but the more the cable gets wound, the more damage it does when it snaps.
Oh the irony
Details on how and where Trump will make the donation remain a work in progress
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/21/trump-russia-probe-legal-bills-aides-244029
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/21/trump-isis-raqqa-islamic-state-244023
#30Days!
nothing to all this Russian nonsense.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/21/jack-shafer-swamp-diary-trump-russia-dossier
DFENS
“It isn’t Benghazi.”
You so sure on that?From the reports there are a lot of open questions still to be answered.
Will this turn into a partisan witch hunt to find evidence. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. Lets see if we get 11 hours of Tillerson testimony to review?
Song of the T Presidency!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC8qPpnD0uE
To the JDs on the board. What do you call it when you start interviewing random divorce lawyers?
Trump moved this week to reduce investigative pressure on him by personally interviewing two candidates for U.S. attorney positions in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
“It is neither normal nor advisable for Trump to personally interview candidates for US Attorney positions, especially the one in Manhattan,” tweeted Preet Bharara, former Manhattan U.S. attorney who was sacked by Trump earlier this year. These jurisdictions would have authority to bring indictments against Trump, noted Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn), saying that the moves “seems to smack of political interference.”
Greatness Gary,true greatness!
http://verifiedpolitics.com/army-officer-just-went-viral-reacting-trumps-knew-signed-controversy/
It’s not an election year.
“Levy: So you don’t think the market is overvalued? Why is that?
Colonna : It’s earnings growth for sure, it’s projected 10% this year, and over the next couple years it’s going to be somewhere between 5% and 10%. We haven’t seen synchronized earnings growth in the US and globally in a long time. And we’re going to have that earnings growth over the next few years. And we have a backdrop that is a lot more constructive.
There’s no recession on the horizon, large chunks of political risk have been taken off the table, not only in Europe but here in the US. We understand Brexit, we understand some of the bigger things out in the market place, central banks are normalizing because they see the growth. And that’s a good thing.
There’s better global growth, you see very little risk of a recession, so that’s a nice backdrop for the equity markets. While the valuations have certainly crept up over the past year or two, we think it’s warranted.“
A fund chief at $2.6 trillion giant State Street says America’s hottest investment product is warping the stock market – Business Insider
https://apple.news/A49RG6UG0RHO852mq6E_zyA
85-95% of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans may come from just 10 rivers, according to a new analysis. (8 in Asia, 2 in Africa.) Previous papers had found that about 65% came from 20 rivers, but this one finds an even higher concentration of sources.
This is good news, IMHO. More concentration of sources suggests that it will be easier to stop plastic pollution than it would be if the sources were more dispersed. And in this case, global ocean health aligns with local litter and environmental concerns. As increasingly affluent people push for cleaner local waterways (as they did in the US and Europe in the 70s), that local effort will reduce the amount of plastic making its way into the oceans.
Now, how to do make that happen more quickly?
https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/blogs/ocean-plastic-rivers
Pollution kills 9 million people a year worldwide, according to a new review in the Lancet. 6.5 million premature deaths from air pollution – mostly heart disease and lung disease. 1.8 million premature deaths from dirty water – the spread of pathogens.
Almost all of this is in the developing world. It’s a massive drain on human development. And it’s a battle we can win.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/one-six-global-deaths-linked-pollution-180965347/
The consolation phone call is fake news. Fodder for dopes. Not sure what the buffoon with the cowgirl hat was doing listening to a private phone call anyway.
The real news this week should have been the uncovering of treason by the pedo ex pres and his mao tse duong outfit wearing partner and their accomplices.
@KeithOlbermann
Trump to pay $430,000 of Russia probe legal fees/hush money to staffers?
That’s because so many of them are guilty
Good breakdown of why Murphy will help this state. It what I have already stated on this blog….it’s all about the ideas.
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/murphys-experience-ideas-make-him-the-best-choice-to-be-njs-next-governor-endorsement-20171022.html?mobi=true
Our current fat governor had zero ideas for 8 years….just finger pointing and yelling. What a waste of valuable time.
Our current governor has had absolutely zero ideas for over 8 years….just yelling and finger pointing. What a waste of valuable time, thank god a grown up has stepped to the plate with actual ideas on how to fix the problems in this state.
I hope Murphy chokes on grapefruit and broccoli
Touche!
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/22/politics/frederica-wilson-tweets-trump/index.html
Democrats should make her their spokesperson. I’m sure That will help them win back Wisconsin.
Idiot
What “breakdown” is found in that endorsement article?