by Calculated Risk on 1/19/2021 03:01:00 PM

A few indicators comparing four years ago and today (and a column after three years - excluding the pandemic) ...

	Jan-17	Jan-20	Dec-20
Vehicle Sales1	16.7	16.9	16.4
Employment change2	2,591	2,195	-704
Unemployment Rate3	4.7%	3.5%	6.7%
Participation Rate4	62.8%	63.4%	61.5%
Housing Starts5	1,056	1,262	1,278
New Home Sales6	486	644	679
Mortgage Delinquency Rate7	6.1%	4.6%	8.3%
GDP Growth8	2.3%	2.5%	1.0%
Budget Deficit9	3.2%	4.6%	16.0%
S&P 50010	2,269	3,317	3,800
1millions, SAAR (average previous 4 years, or 3 years for Jan 2020) 2Thousands (Average previous 4 years, or 3 years for Jan 2020) 3Most Recent Month 4Most Recent Month 5Thousands, SAAR (average previous 4 years, or 3 years for Jan 2020) 6Thousands, SAAR (average previous 4 years, or 3 years for Jan 2020) 7Annual GDP growth (over previous 4 years, or 3 years for Jan 2020).  Q4 2020 estimated at 5.0% annual rate. 8Source: MBA, Quarterly including in-foreclosure (most recent quarter) 9Source: CBP: Annual, fiscal 2016, 2019, and 2020 10Jan 20, 2017, Jan 21, 2020 and Jan 19, 2021