Bellevue Real Estate, Mortgage, and Economy 4/19/10
Posted on 19 April 2010
Here is the Bellevue Real Estate Report for the week of April 19, 2010.
March Housing Starts came in above expectations, UP 1.6%, at an annual rate of 626,000 units. Throw in revisions to February and starts were UP 8.9%. Single-family starts were down a tad for the month, but for all of Q1, they were UP at a 41% annual rate versus the Q4 average. New Building Permits for March also beat estimates, UP 7.5% to a 685,000 annual rate. Some experts feel we’re in the early stage of a substantial rebound in home building. And they point out that the pace of building is still slow enough that inventories can come down even as new construction increases.
As you know, the home buyer tax credit for qualified purchases requires a signed contract by April 30 and a closing by June 30. However, for members of the military, the Foreign Service and the intelligence community who have been on official extended duty, these dates have been extended one full year — to April 30, 2011, for a signed contract and June 30, 2011, for the closing. If you have clients in these services, please have them contact us right away to see if they meet the specific provisions to qualify for this valuable benefit.
FINE TILL FRIDAY… Right through Thursday, investors felt pretty good about the start of corporate earnings season, as the Dow soared past 11,000 for the first time in about two years. Then Friday the SEC announced civil-fraud charges against Goldman Sachs and one of its vice presidents for how they sold subprime securities. The Dow dropped 125 points but did end the week above 11,000. Goldman denies wrongdoing and some pundits say this is just the government putting pressure on Wall Street to kowtow to regulatory reform. We’ll see. For the week, the Dow ended UP just 0.2%, to 11018.66; the S&P 500 was down just 0.2%, to 1192.13; while the Nasdaq went UP solidly 1.1%, to 2481.26.
As far as corporate earnings go, they pretty much justified investors’ positive feelings. Intel, a bellwether for computers if not the whole tech sector, reported earnings that beat expectations and a bullish forecast. JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America bested expectations before the Goldman news spoiled the party for all the financials. Google, GE and UPS also did well with Q1 earnings.
Economic data revealed March CPI was up 0.1%, showing consumer prices are holding. Core CPI, excluding volatile food and energy, is up just 1.1% from a year ago. Consumers must be happy with prices, since Retail Sales shot up 1.6% in March and are up at an 11.7% annual rate for the last six months. Industrial Production is up at a 6.0% annual rate the last six months. Capacity Utilization is up to 73.2% for March from 68.3% last June, the fastest 9-month increase since 1984! Both the Empire State and the Philadelphia Fed indexes are also up, reflecting manufacturing growth in two key regions.
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