Livermore should eye national news, makes last post relevant

TIME FOR A HOUSING CHECK-UP (livermore real estate although individual, should be poised for investment based on National Data)

The health of the housing sector is due for a check-up in the form of new figures on sales of both new and existing homes.
On Wednesday, the National Association of Realtors will report on sales of existing homes in June. According to the consensus in a Reuters poll of economists, sales fell to a
5.87-million-unit annual rate from 5.99 million in May.
The following day, the Commerce Department issues a report on new home sales. The consensus view is for an annual rate of 895,000 in June, which would be down from 915,000 in May.
The housing sector has been a concern to investors as subprime mortgages sold to less credit-worthy borrowers have experienced rising defaults. Some hedge funds with investments in securities linked to the mortgages have had huge losses.
"One of the things that has puzzled us is that with the weakness seen in housing, the jobs picture has remained so strong," said Schaeffer of Becker Capital Management, which has $2.7 billion in assets under management.
Schaeffer said a lot of the jobs created from 2003 to 2006 were associated with a booming housing sector, so for employment to hold up while housing is in a slump seems to be "a little bit of a disconnect."
In addition to the report on new home sales on Thursday, other data that day includes durable goods orders. According to the median forecast in the Reuters poll, orders rose 1.8 percent last month after May's revised drop of 2.4 percent.
Schaeffer said while some improvement in durable goods orders is to be expected after the May decline, Caterpillar's problems, in part due to weak sales, could cause expectations to be scaled back somewhat. Durable goods are washing machines, refrigerators and other big-ticket items expected to last three years or more.
Friday will bring the first report on how the U.S. economy did in the second quarter of 2007. A rebound to an annual growth rate of 3.2 percent is forecast after a dismal pace of just 0.7 percent in the first quarter.
A final July reading of consumer sentiment will come out on Friday in a report from the Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers

My readers should stay tuned to see where these reports fall and how it will effect our local Livermore real estate market and Livermore home sales as well.
(Source Reuters)