ABA: Report Shows Credit Card Market Moderated in First Quarter 2018
Credit card use moderated in the first quarter of 2018, according to the American Bankers Association’s latest quarterly Credit Card Market Monitor. Compared to the previous quarter, purchase volumes fell 4-6 percent across risk tiers. On a year-over-year basis, purchase volumes rose across risk tiers, led by an 8.9 percent increase for super-prime accounts and…
HUD and Census Bureau: New Residential Sales Report for June 2018
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau jointly announced the following new residential sales statistics for June 2018: New Home Sales Sales of new single-family houses in June 2018 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 631,000. This is 5.3 percent (±17.1 percent)* below the revised May…
FHFA: House Price Index Up 0.2 Percent in May 2018
U.S. house prices rose in May, up 0.2 percent from the previous month, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) seasonally adjusted monthly House Price Index (HPI). The previously reported 0.1 percent increase in April was revised upward to 0.2 percent. The FHFA monthly HPI is calculated using home sales price information from mortgages…
Federal Reserve: Income Inequality, Financial Crises and Monetary Policy
Download the PDF: Income Inequality, Financial Crises, and Monetary Policy (PDF) by: Isabel Cairo and Jae W. Sim Abstract: We construct a general equilibrium model in which income inequality results in insufficient aggregate demand, deflation pressure, and excessive credit growth by allocating income to agents featuring low marginal propensity to consume, and if excessive, can lead…
HUD and Census Bureau: Residential Construction Activity Report for June 2018
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau jointly announced the following new residential construction statistics for June 2018. Building Permits: Privately owned housing units authorized by building permits in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,273,000. This is 2.2 percent (±1.2 percent) below the revised…
ABA: Report Shows Consumer Delinquencies Rise in First Quarter 2018
The first quarter of 2018 saw installment loan and bank card delinquencies resume a slow return to normal levels after falling across the board in the previous quarter, according to results from the American Bankers Association’s Consumer Credit Delinquency Bulletin. The composite ratio, which tracks delinquencies in eight closed-end installment loan categories, rose 9 basis…
Census Bureau: Schedule for Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Statistics and ACS Data Release
The U.S. Census Bureau’s schedule for the release of the 2017 income, poverty and health insurance coverage statistics from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey and the 2017 American Community Survey is as follows: Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2018 (no embargo) National 2017 income, poverty and health insurance coverage statistics: Current Population Survey Annual Social…
CFPB: New Research Report on Student Loan Repayment and Broader Household Borrowing
Student loans make up an increasing share of the debt held by borrowers around the country, particularly for younger borrowers. Our previous research has shown that borrowers vary greatly in their ability to pay off their loans, how quickly they can do so, and the potential hurdles they face. Today, we released a new Data…
Federal Reserve: Findings Released from Study of Small Business Owners’ Perspectives on Online Lenders and Products
The Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland on Thursday published Browsing to Borrow: “Mom & Pop” Small Business Perspectives on Online Lenders. The report examines small business owners’ perceptions of online lenders and their understanding and interpretation of the information that online lenders use to describe their credit products. Among the…
FHFA: Index Shows Mortgage Rates Increased in May 2018
Nationally, interest rates on conventional purchase-money mortgages increased from April to May, according to several indices of new mortgage contracts. The National Average Contract Mortgage Rate for the Purchase of Previously Occupied Homes by Combined Lenders Index was 4.57 percent for loans closed in late May, up 6 basis points from 4.51 percent in April. The…