Home Prices Up Again In Most Markets

 

 

Home prices in the September Case Shiller 20-city composite increased 3.0% from September 2011. From August to September, the 20-city composite was also up, posting a gain of 0.3%. The national composite was up 3.6% in the third quarter from 2011 and was up 2.2% from the second quarter of 2012. The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices are published on the last Tuesday of each month at 9:00 am ET. They are constructed to accurately track the price path of typical single-family homes located in each metropolitan area provided. Each index combines matched price pairs for thousands of individual houses from the available universe of arms-length sales data.

October Unemployment State By State

 

         
                               
For October, 37 states and the District of Columbia saw unemployment rate declines, 7 states had increases, while 6 had no change. Year-over-year, 42 states plus the District of Columbia recorded unemployment decreases. Because Housing and ...

Jobs are so closely related, it is important to watch for changing trends in the Unemployment level. The chart below displays current levels of Unemployment by state. This information will be updated monthly.

Huge Jump In Unemployment Claims

For the week ending Novemeber 10, Initial Jobless Claims jumped 78,000 to an 18-month high of 439,000. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the one-week increase in jobless claims was the largest since 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

Initial jobless claims measure the number of people (non industry-specific) filing first-time claims for state unemployment insurance. This report provides a timely, but often misleading, indicator of the direction of the economy, with changes in claims potentially signaling changes in job growth. It is assumed the stronger the job market, the greater the spending power, the healthier the economy. Weekly claims are volatile and data can be skewed by holidays; therefore, many analysts track a four week moving average of data to get a better sense of the underlying trend in claims.

September JOLTS

 

The September Job Openings and Labor Turnover report (JOLTS) came in at 3561K, down from the upwardly revised number of 3661K for August. This was also below the expectations of 3653K and marks the lowest reading since April.

The data for the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey are collected and compiled monthly from a sample of business establishments by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In a monthly survey of business establishments, data are collected for total employment, job openings, hires, quits, layoffs and discharges, and other separations. The JOLTS program covers all private nonfarm establishments such as factories, offices, and stores, as well as federal, state, and local government entities in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.