Quote of the week. “It is the difference between men and women, not the sameness, that creates the tension and delight.” – Edward Abbey
Glut of new, unsold homes shrinks : New home sales shot up 16.2% in April, the biggest monthly jump since 1993. (Economists had expected a paltry 0.2% gain for the month.) Yet the median price of a new home dropped 11.1% in April, the biggest monthly decrease since 1970. What’s going on here? A buyer’s market. Dave Seiders, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders, explained that builders “have been pulling out the stops to sell heavy inventory overhangs, and apparently it’s bearing some fruit.” New home sales were up 27.8% in the South, 8.5% in the West and 3.8% in the Northeast. Sales in the Midwest fell 4%.
This may affect your decision on how you invest your savings plan
Residential resales: slump continues.A new report from the National Association of Realtors revealed that existing home sales dipped 2.6% in April, the first month with fewer than 6 million residential resales since June 2003. Lawrence Yun, the new NAR senior economist, said NAR expected “slower home sales because many subprime loan products are no longer available.”
Gas prices ease up.. The American Automobile Association reported a $.02 decrease at the pump on Friday: the national average price for a dollar of regular unleaded fell to $3.225. (It was $1.10 per gallon as recently as January 2002.) An AP-IPSOS poll conducted last week indicated that more than half of American consumers believe gas prices will cause them serious financial hardship in the near future. In inflation-adjusted terms, the current average of $3.22 per gallon ranks only below the March 1981 price of $1.42 per gallon ($3.29 per gallon in today’s dollars), according to the Energy Information Administration. While the House approved a bill outlawing price gouging last week, the White House termed it an attempt at price controls and threatened a veto.
Winning weeks end. All three major indexes lost ground last week, despite gaining some ground back on Friday. The U.S. markets are closed Monday.
|
% Change |
1-Week |
4-Week |
Y-T-D |
|
DJIA |
-0.36 |
+2.86 |
+7.65 |
|
NASDAQ |
-0.05 |
0.00 |
+5.24 |
|
S&P 500 |
-0.46 |
+1.43 |
+6.54 |
(Source: CNNMoney.com, 5/25/07)
Riddle of the week.Who spends the day at the window, goes to the table for meals and hides at night? Contact my office or wait for next week’s Update for the answer.
Contact my office or wait for next week’s Update for the answer.
Answer to last week’s riddle. The clock that doesn’t work is best. It will always be correct twice a day. The clock that loses a minute a day will not be correct again for 720 days (until it loses 720 minutes).