by Calculated Risk on 6/30/2011 11:14:00 AM

From the Kansas City Fed: Manufacturing Sector Shows Rebound After Last Month's Slowdown

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City released the June Manufacturing Survey today. According to Chad Wilkerson, vice president and economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, the survey revealed that growth in Tenth District manufacturing activity rebounded solidly in June after a brief slowdown last month, and producers remained generally optimistic about future activity.

“Factories in the region basically resumed their solid pace of growth from earlier in the year, following some disruptions in May,” said Wilkerson. “Also, hiring plans remain fairly solid for the second half of the year.”
...
The month-over-month composite index was 14 in June, up from 1 in May and equal to 14 in April. ... Most other month-over-month indicators also improved in June. The production index jumped from -2 to 22, and the shipments, new orders, and order backlog indexes also posted solid gains. The employment index increased from 9 to 17, and the new orders for exports index also edged higher.

This was a solid rebound from May.

Earlier, the Chicago PMI indicated a rebound in June with the index at 61.1 (SA), up from 56.6 in May. New orders were up sharply from 53.5 to 61.2, although employment was down a little to 60.8 from 58.7 (above 50 is expansion).

This is the last of the regional Fed surveys for June. The regional surveys provide a hint about the ISM manufacturing index - and the regional surveys were fairly weak this month as the following graph shows.

Click on graph for larger image in graph gallery.

The New York and Philly Fed surveys are averaged together (dashed green, through June), and five Fed surveys are averaged (blue, through June) including New York, Philly, Richmond, Dallas and Kansas City. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) PMI (red) is through May (right axis).

The regional surveys suggest the ISM manufacturing index will fall to the low 50s or so in June. After the NY and Philly Fed surveys were released, it seems that a reading below 50 was possible (and could still happen).

However the more recent surveys (Richmond, Dallas, Kansas City and Chicago PMI) all showed expansion in June. The ISM index for June will be released tomorrow, July 1st, and expectations are for a decrease to 51.7 from 53.5 in May.

by Calculated Risk on 6/30/2011 09:58:00 AM

Notes: Case-Shiller is the most followed house price index, but CoreLogic is used by the Federal Reserve and is followed by many analysts. The CoreLogic HPI is a three month weighted average of March, April and May (May weighted the most) and is not seasonally adjusted (NSA).

From CoreLogic: CoreLogic® Home Price Index Shows Second Consecutive Month-Over-Month Increase

CoreLogic ... today released its May Home Price Index (HPI) which shows that home prices in the U.S. increased on a month-over-month basis. According to the CoreLogic HPI, national home prices, including distressed sales, increased by 0.8 percent in May 2011 compared to April 2011, the second consecutive month-over-month increase. On a year-over-year basis, home prices declined by 7.4 percent in May 2011 compared to May 2010 after declining by 6.7 percent in April 2011 compared to April 2010. Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year prices declined by 0.4 percent in May 2011 compared to May 2010 and by 0.8 percent in April 2011 compared to April 2010. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.

“Two consecutive months of month-over-month growth and continued relative strength in the non-distressed market segment are positive seasonal signs in the housing market. Slowly declining shadow inventory and stabilized negative equity levels are also positive signs. Nonetheless, the fragile economic recovery is still critical to the long-term recovery in the housing market,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic.

Click on graph for larger image in graph gallery.

This graph shows the national CoreLogic HPI data since 1976. January 2000 = 100.

The index was up 0.8% in May, and is down 7.4% over the last year, and off 32.7% from the peak.

This is the tenth straight month of year-over-year declines, and the index is still 2.4% below the March 2009 low (the previous post-bubble low).

Some of this increase is seasonal (the CoreLogic index is NSA) and the index is still off 7.4% from last May (the largest year-over-year decline since Sept 2009).

by Calculated Risk on 6/30/2011 08:30:00 AM

The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims:

In the week ending June 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 428,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 429,000. The 4-week moving average was 426,750, an increase of 500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 426,250.

The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims for the last 40 years.

Click on graph for larger image in graph gallery.

The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average. The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims increased slightly this week to 426,750.

This is the 12th straight week with initial claims above 400,000, and the 4-week average is at about the same the level as in January. This suggests the labor market weakness in May continued into June.

by Calculated Risk on 6/30/2011 02:49:00 AM

No "hate" for housing here ...

From David Streitfeld and Megan Thee-Brenan at the NY Times: Despite Fears, Owning Home Retains Allure, Poll Shows

Nearly nine in 10 Americans say homeownership is an important part of the American dream, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Here are the poll results. Unfortunately there is no history for this polling question. The question asked was: "How important a part of the American dream is owning a home – is it a very important part of the American dream, somewhat important, not too important, or not at all important?"

55% said important and another 34% said "somewhat important".

There are a series of new questions on housing (see questions 31 through 61). As an example, Question 54: "In the last three years, have you delayed selling your house because you are waiting for the housing market to improve, or are you not interested in selling your house now?"

Delayed 10%
Not interested 88%
NA 2%

That might indicate a fairly large number of homeowners are "waiting for a better market".

by Calculated Risk on 6/29/2011 06:01:00 PM

From Maryann Haggerty at the NY Times: The Post-Foreclosure Wait (ht Ann)

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration set guidelines for how long a borrower must wait after a “significant derogatory event.”

There are plenty of asterisks and conditions. But to generalize, the wait is longest after a foreclosure. Extenuating circumstances like a job loss, illness or divorce reduce the wait.

With such circumstances, Fannie and Freddie specify a two-year wait after a short sale, deed in lieu, or discharge or dismissal of bankruptcy, and three years after foreclosure. Without extenuating circumstances, waits can extend to four years after bankruptcy and seven years after foreclosure.

“The key is to avoid the foreclosure,” said Andrew Wilson, a spokesman for Fannie Mae. “That is what will help you be eligible for the shorter period.”

As for F.H.A.-insured loans, they are available three years after a foreclosure, assuming perfect credit afterward, and two years after a bankruptcy is discharged. After a short sale, there’s a three-year wait if the borrower is in default at the time of the sale and there are no extenuating circumstances.

Mortgage broker "Soylent Green is People" sent me this short summary last month (with many more details):

"Pre-Foreclosure" = Short Sale.

VA - immediate, providing you've got 12 months clean credit.
FHA - 3 years.
Conventional 4 years.

Foreclosure:

VA - 2 years, providing you've got 12 months clean credit AND the loan that was foreclosed was not a VA
FHA - 3 years, providing that the foreclosed loan was not an FHA mortgage
Conventional - 7 years.

Soylent Green is People thinks we will start seeing "bounce back buyers" later this year and in 2012.

by Calculated Risk on 6/29/2011 03:38:00 PM

This will never happen ...

A quote from Reuters: Exclusive: S&P to deeply cut U.S. ratings if debt payment missed

"If the U.S. government misses a payment, it goes to D," [Standard & Poor's managing director John Chambers told Reuters]. "That would happen right after August 4, when the bills mature, because they don't have a grace period."

That would be the first default in U.S. history.

Reuters quotes Chambers as saying that he views the likelihood of a U.S. default as "extremely low," and that he expects a last minute agreement.

Of course there will be a last minute agreement; the debt ceiling is all about political posing.

Here is what I wrote in early May:

Congress will probably push this to the brink, but they will raise the debt ceiling before the country defaults. The first rule for most politicians is to get re-elected, and the easiest way to guarantee losing in 2012 is to throw the country back into recession. If that happened, I believe the voters would correctly blame the leaders of Congress, and I think Congress knows that too. Therefore it won't happen. I'm not worried and neither are investors.