Friday, June 24, 2005

Durables Exceed Estimates, Median New Home Price Fell 6.6%

- Durable Goods Orders for May rose 5.5% versus estimates of a 1.5% increase and a 1.4% gain in April.
- Durables Ex Transportation for May fell .2% versus estimates of a .5% gain and a downwardly revised .7% decline in April.
- New Home Sales for May rose to 1298K versus estimates of 1320K and a downwardly revised 1271K in April.

BOTTOM LINE: Orders for durable goods rose in May by the most in more than a year, mainly reflecting a surge in bookings for Boeing aircraft. With inventories fairly high and fuel costs rising, investment in new equipment may be slow to recover in coming months. At the current sales pace, manufacturers have 1.41 months of supply, unchanged from a month earlier and near a two-year high. Transportation equipment orders surged 21.2%, the most since July 2002, after rising 7.8% in April. Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a gauge of future business investment, fell 2.3% last month. However, unfilled orders, a proxy of future production rose 1.9%, the most since June 2000.

US new home sales rose to the second-best level in history, boosted by low mortgage rates and an improving job market. Prices declined 6.6%, the most since January 2003. The median price of a new home fell to $217,000 from $232,200 in April. The median price of a new home has increased 2.5% over the last 12 months. The National Association of Realtors said this year would be a record year for sales of both new and existing homes, beating last year’s records. Sales rose 22.9% in the Midwest and fell 24.5% in the Northeast. The supply of homes for sale was unchanged at 4.2 months in May, a relatively low level.

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