A low supply of homes for sale on the market continued to plague home buyers in December. The National Association of REALTORS® reports that Pending Home Sales in December rose 0.5% from November, which was just below the 0.6% expected. Year-over-year Pending Home Sales are up 0.5%. Sales slowed in all four major regions of the country. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says, “Buyers throughout the country continue to be hamstrung by record low supply levels that are pushing up prices — especially at the lower end of the market.”
After two straight days of losses, Stocks are higher being buoyed by strong earnings reports and after President Trump delivered a mostly controversy-free State of the Union last night. The president called for a $1.5 billion infrastructure spending bill. U.S. Stocks are on track for their best January in decades. The closely watched S&P 500 is up 5.7%, its best January gain since 1997 fueled by positive economic data, strong earnings and the recent tax cuts.
Private employers added more new workers than expected in January as the job markets continue to grow. ADP Private Payrolls in January rose by 234,000, well above the 190,000 expected while December was revised lower to 242,000 from 250,000. Within the report it revealed that small businesses added 58,000 workers; medium size businesses 91,000; and large companies 85,000. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, said, “The job market juggernaut marches on. Given the strong January job gain, 2018 is on track to be the eighth consecutive year in which the economy creates over 2 million jobs. If it falls short, it is likely because businesses can’t find workers to fill all the open job positions.”
