Economic Snapshot: Consumer confidence up in June
Consumer confidence, which decreased in May, increased to 118.9 in June.
The Present Situation Index increased from 140.6 to 146.3, while the Expectations Index declined from 102.3 to 100.6.
Consumers saying business conditions are “good” increased from 29.8 percent to 30.8 percent and those saying business conditions are “bad” declined from 13.9 percent to 12.7 percent. Consumers stating jobs are “plentiful” rose from 30.0 percent to 32.8 percent and those claiming jobs are “hard to get: decreased slightly from 18.3 percent to 18.0 percent.
The percentage of consumers expecting business conditions to improve over the next six months decreased from 21.5 percent to 20.4 percent; however, those expecting business conditions to decline also declined marginally from 10.3 percent to 9.9 percent.
The proportion of consumers expecting more jobs in the months ahead increased from 18.6 percent to 19.3 percent, but those anticipating fewer jobs also increased from 12.1 percent to 14.6 percent. The percentage of consumers expecting an improvement in their income rose from 19.1 percent to 22.2 percent; however, the proportion expecting a decline also increased slightly from 8.7 percent to 9.2 percent.
New home sales
Sales of new single-family houses were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 610,000 in May 2017, according to estimates released jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 2.9 percent above the revised April rate of 593,000 and 8.9 percent above the May 2016 estimate of 560,000.
The median sales price of new houses sold in May 2017 was $345,800 and the average sales price was $406,400.
The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of May was 268,000. This represents a supply of 5.3 months at the current sales rate.
