by Calculated Risk on 1/26/2015 08:37:00 AM

Note: I follow several house price indexes (Case-Shiller, CoreLogic, Black Knight, Zillow, FHFA, FNC and more). Note: Black Knight uses the current month closings only (not a three month average like Case-Shiller or a weighted average like CoreLogic), excludes short sales and REOs, and is not seasonally adjusted.

From Black Knight: U.S. Home Prices Up 0.1 Percent for the Month; Up 4.5 Percent Year-Over-Year

Today, the Data and Analytics division of Black Knight Financial Services released its latest Home Price Index (HPI) report, based on November 2014 residential real estate transactions. The Black Knight HPI combines the company’s extensive property and loan-level databases to produce a repeat sales analysis of home prices as of their transaction dates every month for each of more than 18,500 U.S. ZIP codes. The Black Knight HPI represents the price of non-distressed sales by taking into account price discounts for REO and short sales.

The Black Knight HPI increased 0.1% percent in November, and is off 10.1% from the peak in June 2006 (not adjusted for inflation).

The year-over-year increases had been getting steadily smaller since peaking in 2013 - as shown in the table below - but the YoY increase has been about the same for the last three months:

Month	YoY House Price Increase
Jan-13	6.7%
Feb-13	7.3%
Mar-13	7.6%
Apr-13	8.1%
May-13	7.9%
Jun-13	8.4%
Jul-13	8.7%
Aug-13	9.0%
Sep-13	9.0%
Oct-13	8.8%
Nov-13	8.5%
Dec-13	8.4%
Jan-14	8.0%
Feb-14	7.6%
Mar-14	7.0%
Apr-14	6.4%
May-14	5.9%
June-14	5.5%
July-14	5.1%
Aug-14	4.9%
Sep-14	4.6%
Oct-14	4.5%
Nov-14	4.5%

The press release has data for the 20 largest states, and 40 MSAs.

Black Knight shows prices off 40.9% from the peak in Las Vegas, off 34.1% in Orlando, and 31.6% off from the peak in Riverside-San Bernardino, CA (Inland Empire). Prices are at new highs in Colorado and Texas (Denver, Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio metros). Prices are also at new highs in Honolulu, HI, Nashville, TN, and San Jose, CA.

Note: Case-Shiller for November will be released tomorrow.

by Calculated Risk on 1/25/2015 09:09:00 PM

From the WSJ: Leftists Sweep to Power in Greece

Greek voters were set to hand power to a radical leftist party in national elections on Sunday, a popular rebellion against the bitter economic medicine Greece has swallowed for five years and a rebuke of the fellow European countries that prescribed it.

With nearly all votes counted, opposition party Syriza was on track to win about half the seats in Parliament. In the wee hours of the morning, it clinched a coalition deal with a small right-wing party also opposed to Europe’s economic policy to give the two a clear majority.

We discussed this several years ago - in a democracy, austerity will eventually fail at the ballot box. The people will not tolerate 25% unemployment forever - with no hope in sight.

Monday:
• At 10:30 AM ET: the Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey for January.

Weekend:
• Schedule for Week of January 25, 2015

From CNBC: Pre-Market Data and Bloomberg futures: currently S&P futures are down 12 and DOW futures are down 120 (fair value).

Oil prices were down over the last week with WTI futures at $44.99 per barrel and Brent at $48.45 per barrel.  A year ago, WTI was at $96, and Brent was at $109 - so prices are down 54% and 56% year-over-year respectively.

Below is a graph from Gasbuddy.com for nationwide gasoline prices. Nationally prices are around $2.02 per gallon (down about $1.25 per gallon from a year ago).  If you click on "show crude oil prices", the graph displays oil prices for WTI, not Brent; gasoline prices in most of the U.S. are impacted more by Brent prices.

Orange County Historical Gas Price Charts Provided by GasBuddy.com

by Calculated Risk on 1/25/2015 11:40:00 AM

The advance estimate for Q4 GDP will be released this week. The consensus forecast is that real GDP increased 3.2% annualized in Q4.

The FOMC GDP projections are for Q4-over-Q4.  The most recent FOMC projection was for real GDP to increase 2.3% to 2.5% Q4 2014 over Q4 2013.

However many analysts forecast annual GDP, so here is a discussion of the difference between annual and Q4-over-Q4:

• The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reports real GDP growth on a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) basis. So this is adjusted for inflation (real), seasonally adjusted, and annualized.  Other countries report GDP differently - as an example China reports GDP growth on a year-over-year basis, and the UK reports GDP growth for each quarter, but not annualized.  A 3.2% annualized real growth rate in the US would be reported at 0.79% quarterly in the UK (not annualized).

Note: the easiest way to calculate the real change in GDP is to use the chained 2009 dollars series. Nominal GDP in 2014 was around $17.5 trillion.

•  Calculating the Q4 GDP forecast: Using the consensus forecast of 3.2% real GDP growth in Q4, real GDP (2009 dollars) would be $16,333.7 billion (SAAR) in Q4.  To calculate this, use Table 1.1.6. Real Gross Domestic Product, Chained Dollars at the BEA.  The BEA reported Q3 GDP was $16,205.6 billion (SAAR).  Multiply this by (1.032 ^ .25) to calculate Q4 real GDP (2009 dollars, SAAR).

• Calculating Q4-over-Q4 GDP growth: The BEA reported real GDP in Q4 2013 was $15,916.2 billion (SAAR, 2009 dollars). So the Q4-over-Q4 growth rate would be $16,333.7 (Q4 2014 forecast) divided by $15,916.2 (Q4 2013). That would be 2.6% (slightly above the December FOMC projections).

• Calculating 2014 GDP growth: To calculated GDP growth for 2013, first we calculate the annual real GDP for 2014 (this is an average of GDP for the four quarters).  Using the forecast GDP for Q4, the 2014 annual GDP would be $16,095.4 billion.   The annual real GDP (2009 dollars) for 2013 was $15,710.3 billion.  So the 2014 annual growth rate would be $16,095.4 (four quarter average using Q4 forecast) divided by $15,710.3 (2013 real GDP). This would be 2.5%.

Not much difference between the annual rate and Q4-over-Q4, but it might be a little confusing when GDP is reported this week.  Some articles might report the Q4-over-Q4 growth rate that the FOMC is looking at - other articles might report 2014 over 2013.

Of course most of the focus will be on the quarterly GDP rate (and also inflation).

by Calculated Risk on 1/24/2015 01:04:00 PM

The key reports this week are the advance estimate of Q4 GDP, December New Home sales, and November Case-Shiller house prices.

For manufacturing, the January Dallas and Richmond Fed surveys will be released this week.

----- Monday, January 26th -----
10:30 AM: Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey for January.

----- Tuesday, January 27th -----
8:30 AM: Durable Goods Orders for December from the Census Bureau. The consensus is for a 0.7% increase in durable goods orders.

9:00 AM: S&P/Case-Shiller House Price Index for November. Although this is the November report, it is really a 3 month average of September, October and November prices.

This graph shows the nominal seasonally adjusted National Index, Composite 10 and Composite 20 indexes through the October 2014 report (the Composite 20 was started in January 2000).

The consensus is for a 4.6% year-over-year increase in the National Index for November, down from 4.7% in October. The Zillow forecast is for the National Index to increase 4.5% year-over-year in November, and for prices to increase 0.6% month-to-month seasonally adjusted.

10:00 AM: New Home Sales for December from the Census Bureau.

This graph shows New Home Sales since 1963. The dashed line is the November sales rate.

The consensus is for an increase in sales to 450 thousand Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) in December from 438 thousand in November.

10:00 AM: Regional and State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly) for December 2014

10:00 AM: Richmond Fed Survey of Manufacturing Activity for January.

10:00 AM: Conference Board's consumer confidence index for January. The consensus is for the index to increase to 95.0 from 92.6.

----- Wednesday, January 28th -----
7:00 AM: The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.

2:00 PM: FOMC Meeting Statement. The FOMC is expected to retain the word "patient" in the FOMC statement.

----- Thursday, January 29th -----
8:30 AM: The initial weekly unemployment claims report will be released. The consensus is for claims to decrease to 300 thousand from 307 thousand.

10:00 AM ET: Pending Home Sales Index for December. The consensus is for a 0.5% increase in the index.

10:00 AM: Q4 Housing Vacancies and Homeownership report from the Census Bureau. This report is frequently mentioned by analysts and the media to report on the homeownership rate, and the homeowner and rental vacancy rates. However, this report doesn't track with other measures (like the decennial Census and the ACS).

----- Friday, January 30th -----
8:30 AM: Gross Domestic Product, 4th quarter 2014 (advance estimate). The consensus is that real GDP increased 3.2% annualized in Q4.

9:45 AM: Chicago Purchasing Managers Index for January. The consensus is for a reading of 57.7, down from 58.8 in December.

9:55 AM: University of Michigan's Consumer sentiment index (final for January). The consensus is for a reading of 98.2, unchanged from the preliminary reading of 98.2, and up from the December reading of 93.6.

by Calculated Risk on 1/24/2015 08:11:00 AM

This is an unofficial list of Problem Banks compiled only from public sources.

Here is the unofficial problem bank list for Jan 23, 2015.

Changes and comments from surferdude808:

For the second straight week, there is a bank failure that contributed to changes to the Unofficial Problem Bank List. In all, there were two removals that lowered the list count to 390 institutions with assets of $122.5 billion. A year ago, the list held 600 institutions with $197.9 billion in assets.

Valley National Bank, Espanola, NM ($174 million), which has been on the list since its first publication in 2009, found a merger partner in order to escape the list. Highland Community Bank, Chicago, IL ($58 million) was closed today by the FDIC. It was the 62nd bank headquartered in Illinois to fail since the on-set of the Great Recession in 2008.

Next week, we anticipate for the FDIC to release an update on its latest enforcement action activities.

CR Note: The first unofficial problem bank list was published in August 2009 with 389 institutions. The list peaked at 1,002 institutions on June 10, 2011, and is now back down to 390 - only one more than when we started.