January’s jobs, consumer prices and existing home sales; December’s retail sales; November’s business inventories

Major economic releases from last week included the Employment Situation Summary for January, the January Consumer Price Index, and the December Import-Export Price Index, all from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Advance Retail Sales Report for December and the accompanying Business Sales and Inventories report for November, both from the Census Bureau, and the Existing Home Sales Report for January from the National Association of Realtors (NAR)…

Employers Added 130,000 Jobs in January after Big Downward Revisions to 2025 Stats, Unemployment Rate at 4.3%

The Employment Situation Summary for January from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated an increase in payroll jobs that was double what had been forecast for the month, while the unemployment rate fell to 4.3% as labor force participation increased…Estimates extrapolated from the seasonally adjusted establishment survey data projected that employers added 130,000 jobs in January, after the previously estimated payroll job increase for December was revised from 50,000 to 48,000, and the payroll jobs increase for November was revised from 56,000 to 41,000, changes that also reflect the effects of updated seasonal adjustment models, which were also incorporated into an annual benchmark revision with this report….the unadjusted data, meanwhile, shows that there were actually 2,649,000 fewer payroll jobs remaining in January than in December, as the normal post holiday seasonal layoffs in sectors such as retail, wholesale, goods transportation, leisure and hospitality were normalized by the seasonal adjustments..

As is usual for a January jobs report, this report included the results of the annual benchmark revision, which reset payroll jobs for March 2025 (the benchmark month) at 158,377,000, 898,000 fewer jobs than was previously reported for that month, then from that, concurrently revised payroll job totals prior for every month in 2025 by quantities ranging from a downward revision of 785.000 jobs for last January to a downward revision of 1,045,000 fewer payroll jobs than was previously reported for September 2025 (as is shown in Table A of the press release)…incorporating this revision, there were only 181,000 more jobs at the end of 2025 than at the end of 2024, and January’s non-farm payrolls were 6,334,000 above the 152,293,000 seasonally adjusted jobs that are now indicated for February 2020, the monthly payroll job high before before the pandemic hit….since all the newly revised establishment survey figures are now incorporated into this month’s establishment report as if the previously reported totals had never been reported, that’s the way we’ll cover it…

Seasonally adjusted job increases in January were seen in the service providing and goods producing sectors, while the government sector saw significant job losses….since the BLS summary of the job changes by sector is clear and a bit more detailed than our usual synopsis from the tables, we’ll again just quote from that summary here:

• Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 130,000 in January. Job gains occurred in health care, social assistance, and construction, while federal government and financial activities lost jobs. Payroll employment changed little in 2025 (+15,000 per month on average). (See table B-1. See the note at the end of this news release and table A for more information about the annual benchmark process.)
• Health care added 82,000 jobs in January, with gains in ambulatory health care services (+50,000), hospitals (+18,000), and nursing and residential care facilities (+13,000). Job growth in health care averaged 33,000 per month in 2025.
• Employment in social assistance increased by 42,000 in January, primarily in individual and family services (+38,000).
• Construction added 33,000 jobs in January, reflecting an employment gain in nonresidential specialty trade contractors (+25,000). Employment in construction was essentially flat in 2025.
• In January, federal government employment continued to decline (-34,000) as some federal employees who accepted a deferred resignation offer in 2025 came off federal payrolls. Since reaching a peak in October 2024, federal government employment is down by 327,000, or 10.9 percent.
• Financial activities employment declined by 22,000 in January and is down by 49,000 since reaching a recent peak in May 2025. Within the industry, insurance carriers and related activities lost 11,000 jobs over the month.
• Employment showed little change over the month in other major industries, including mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction; manufacturing; wholesale trade; retail trade; transportation and warehousing; information; professional and business services; leisure and hospitality; and other services

The establishment survey also showed that average hourly pay for all employees rose by 15 cents an hour to $37.17 an hour in January, after it had increased by 12 cents an hour in December; at the same time, the average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory employees increased by 12 cents to $31.95 an hour…employers also reported that the average workweek for all private payroll employees increased by 0.1 hour to 34.3 hours in January and hence was up by 0.2 hours year over year, while hours for production and non-supervisory personnel increased by 0.1 hour to 33.8 hours…at the same time, the manufacturing workweek was 0.1 hour higher at 40.1 hours, while average factory overtime was unchanged at 2.9 hours…

The January household survey‘s data usually reflects the benchmark revision to the 2025 population figures, but it appears that revision has been postponed until the February estimates are released in March…As it is, the January household survey indicates that the seasonally adjusted extrapolation of those who reported being employed rose by an estimated 528,000 to 164,520,000, while the estimated number of those who reported being unemployed and looking for work fell by 141,000 to 7,362,000, and as a result the total labor force increased by a rounded net of 387,000 to 171,882,000… since the working age population had grown by 166,000 over the same period, that meant the number of employment aged individuals who were not in the labor force fell by 221,000 to 103,100,000….since the number of those in the labor force rose by more than the civilian noninstitutional population was growing, the labor force participation rate rose from 62.4% in December to 62.5% in January….at the same time, the increase in the number employed as a percentage of the increase in the population was enough to raise the employment to population ratio, which we could think of as an employment rate, by 0.1% to 59.8%…meanwhile, the decrease in the number considered unemployed was enough to lower the unemployment rate, from 4.4% in December to 4.3% in January… meanwhile, the number of those who reported they were forced to accept just part time work fell by 453,000, from 5,341,000 in December to 4,888,000 in January, which was enough to lower the alternative measure of unemployment, U-6, which includes those “employed part time for economic reasons”, by 0.4% to 8.0% of the labor force in December, and now down from the four year high of 8.7% in November…

Like most reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment situation press release itself is usually easy to read and understand, so you can get more details on these two reports from there…note that almost every paragraph in that release points to one or more of the tables that are linked to on the bottom of the release, and those tables are also on a separate html page here that you can open it along side of the press release to avoid the need to scroll up and down the page to view the tables you want to see..

Consumer Prices Rose 0.2% in in January on Higher Prices for Most Services

The consumer price index was 0.2% higher in January, as higher prices for groceries, rent, new cars, gas utility service, airline fares, hospital services, clothing, funeral expenses, tax preparation, TVs, furniture and appliances, computer hardware and software, sports equipment, internet and telephone service, and transportation and recreational services were offset by lower prices for fuel, used vehicles, lodging, home, health and vehicle insurance, and smartphones….the Consumer Price Index Summary from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that the weighted average of seasonally adjusted prices for consumer goods and services was 0.2% higher in January, after being 0.3% higher in December, after being 0.2% higher the two months ending in November, 0.3% higher in September, 0.3% higher in August, 0.2% higher in July, 0.3% higher in June, 0.1% higher in May, 0.2% higher in April, unchanged in March, 0.2% higher in February, and 0.4% higher in January of last year, with all those monthly percentage figures now revised from a month ago based on a new seasonal adjustment computation, which did not affect the unadjusted price index data or the overall annual change….

The unadjusted CPI-U index, which was originally set to have prices of the 1982 to 1984 period equal to 100, rose from 324.054 in December to 325.252 in January, which left it 2.3864% higher than the index reading of 317.671 from December of last year, which is reported as a 2.4% year over year increase, less than the 2.7% year over year increase that was reported for December, with that widely cited year over year change reflecting the effect of last January’s 0.5% increase dropping out of the comparison and being replaced by the current month’s +0.2%, and not telling us anything more about inflation beyond that….with lower prices for energy recorded this month, seasonally adjusted core prices, which exclude both food and energy, were up by 0.3% for the month, as the unadjusted core price index rose from 330.506 in December to 331.950 in January, which left the core index 2.5037% ahead of its year ago reading of 323.842, which is reported as a 2.5% year over year increase, less than the 2.6% year over year core price increase that was reported for December, and well below the 6.6% annual increase reported for September 2022, which had been the largest annual increase in core prices in forty years…

The volatile seasonally adjusted energy price index was 1.5% lower in January, after being 0.3% higher in December, 1.1% higher in November, 1.5% higher in September, 0.7% higher in August, 1.1% lower in July, 0.9% higher in June, 1.0% lower in May, 0.7% higher in April, 2.4% lower in March, 0.2% higher last February, and 1.1% higher last January, and is now 0.1% lower than in January of a year ago….the price index for energy commodities was 3.3% lower in January, on a 3.2% decrease in the price index for gasoline and a 5.7% decrease in the price index for fuel oil, while the price index for “other energy commodities”, including propane, kerosene, and firewood, averaged out to unchanged….meanwhile, the price index for energy services was 0.2% higher, after rising 1.0% in December, as the price index for utility gas service was 1.0% higher in January, and is now 9.8% higher than it was a year ago, while the electricity price index was 0.1% lower, after rising 0.2% in December…. energy commodities are now averaging 7.3% below their year ago levels, with gasoline prices averaging 7.5% lower than they were a year ago, while the energy services price index is still up 7.2% from last January, as electricity prices are still averaging 6.3% higher than a year ago…

Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted food price index was 0.2% higher in January, after being 0.7% higher in December, 0.1% higher over the two months ending November, and after being 0.2% higher in September, 0.4% higher in August, unchanged in July, 0.3% higher in June, 0.3% higher in May, unchanged in April, 0.4% higher in March, 0.2% higher last February, and 0.3% higher last January, and is now 2.9% higher than a year ago…the price index for food purchased for use at home was 0.2% higher in December, while the price index for food bought away from home was 0.1% higher, as average prices at fast food outlets rose 0.3% , but average prices at full service restaurants were unchanged, while the price index for food at employee sites and schools was 0.1% higher, and prices for other food away from home averaged 0.7% higher…

In the food at home categories, the price index for cereals and bakery products was 1.2% higher, even as average bread prices were unchanged, as the price index for breakfast cereal rose 2.1%, the price index for rice, pasta, and cornmeal rose 0.9%, the price index for cookies rose 3.2%, and the price index for frozen and refrigerated bakery products, pies, tarts, turnovers was 2.3% higher.…at the same time, the price index for the meats, poultry, fish, and eggs food group was 0.2% higher, even though egg prices fell 7.0%, as the price index for pork rose 1.4% and the price index for fresh fish and seafood was 3.6% higher….in addition, the seasonally adjusted price index for dairy products was 0.8% higher, as average milk prices rose 0.4%, as the price index for cheese and related products rose 0.6%, and the price index for ice cream and related products was 1.6% higher….meanwhile, the fruits and vegetables price index was 0.1% higher, even though the price index for fresh fruits vegetables fell 0.6%, as the price index for canned fruits and vegetables rose 5.1%, and the price index for frozen fruits and vegetables was 1.6% higher.…in addition, the beverages price index was also 0.1% higher, as the price index for carbonated drinks rose 1.5, and the price index for noncarbonated juices and drinks was 0.5% higher….lastly, the price index for the ‘other foods at home’ category was 0.3% lower, as the price index for butter and margarine fell 1.7%, the price index for salad dressing fell 1.6%, the price index for peanut butter fell 2.2%, the price index for frozen and freeze dried prepared foods fell 1.3%, and the price index for baby food and formula was 2.1% lower…

Among the seasonally adjusted core components of the CPI, which rose by 0.3% in January, after rising by 0.2% in December, by 0.2% over the 2 months ending in November, and by 0.3% in August, 0.3% in July, by 0.2% in June, by 0.1% in May, by 0.2% in April, by 0.1% in March, by 0.3% last February, and by 0.4% last January, the composite price index of all goods less food and energy goods was virtually unchanged in December, while the more heavily weighted composite index for all services less energy services was 0.4% higher..

Among the goods components of the core price index, which will initially be used by the Bureau of Economic Analysis to adjust January’s retail sales for inflation in national accounts data, the price index for household furnishings and supplies was 0.3% higher, as the price index for living room, kitchen, and dining room furniture rose 1.0%, the price index for appliances rose 1.3%, the price index for floor coverings rose 3.2%, the price index dishes and flatware rose 1.6%, the price index for nonelectric cookware and tableware rose 1.4%, and the price index for tools, hardware and supplies was 1.0% higher….at the same time, the apparel price index was 0.3% higher on a 2.4% increase in the price index for men’s shirts and sweaters, a 4.7% increase in the price index for women’s dresses, a 2.4% increase in the price index for boys’ apparel, and a 1.9% increase in the price index for men's footwear….on the other hand, the price index for transportation commodities other than fuel was was 0.7% lower, even as average prices for new cars rose 0.5%, as the price index for used cars and trucks fell 1.8%, the price index for motor oil, coolant, and fluids fell 2.3% and the price index for vehicle parts and equipment other than tires was 1.8% lower….meanwhile, the price index for medical care commodities was 0.1% lower as the price index for prescription drugs was unchanged, the price index for nonprescription drugs rose 0.3%, and the price index for medical equipment and supplies was 0.8% higher…at the same time, the recreational commodities index was 0.6% higher, as the price index for recorded music and music subscriptions rose 4.5%, the price index for audio equipment rose 1.7%, the price index for sports equipment rose 2.3%, the price index for other recreational books rose 1.7%, and the price index for sewing machines, fabric and supplies was 1.5% higher… meanwhile, the education and communication commodities index was 0.3% higher, on a 3.1% increase in the price index for computers, peripherals, and smart home assistants and a 1 .4% increase in the price index for computer software and accessories.…lastly, a separate price index just for alcoholic beverages was 0.2% higher, while the price index for ‘other goods’ was 1.1% higher on an 2.1% increase in the price index for cigarettes, tobacco and smoking products and a 1.2% increase in the price index for cosmetics, perfume, bath, nail preparations and implements…

Within core services, the price index for shelter was 0.2% higher, as rents rose 0.2%, homeowner’s equivalent rent rose 0.2%, while prices for lodging away from home at hotels and motels were 0.5% lower, and the price index for household insurance was 0.1% lower, while the price index for water, sewers and trash collection services was 0.7% higher, and the price index for moving, storage, and freight expense was 1.0% higher… at the same time, the price index for medical care services was 0.3 higher, as the price index for dental services rose 0.9%, price index for hospital services rose 1.0%, the price index for home health care rose 2.1% and the price index for nursing homes and adult day services was 1.0% higher….moreover, the transportation services price index was 1.4% higher, as the price index for airline fares rose 6.5%, the price index for car and truck rental rose 5.0%, the price index for Intracity mass transit rose 4.1%, the price index for parking and other fees rose 7.4%, and the price index for state motor vehicle registration and license fees was 3.1% higher….in addition, the recreation services price index was 0.4% higher, as the price index for subscription and rental of video and video games rose 3.0%, the price index for cable, satellite, and live streaming television service rose 0.4%, the price index for admissions to sporting events rose 5.4%, and the price index for photographers and photo processing was 1.6% higher…in addition, the price index for education and communication services was also 0.4% higher, as the price index for internet services and electronic information providers rose 1.8%, the price index for residential telephone services rose 1.3%, and the price index for college tuition and fees was 0.5% lower.…lastly, the index for other personal services was 1.6% higher, as the price index for funeral expenses rose 3.1% while the price index for financial services services fell 10.0% on a 13.8% decrease in tax return preparation and other accounting fees..

Retail Sales Flat in December after Prior Months Revised Lower; PCE Goods to Add 47 Basis Points to Q4 GDP

Seasonally adjusted retail sales barely changed in December after downward revisions to retail sales for October and November… The Advance Retail Sales Report for December(pdf) from the Census Bureau estimated that our seasonally adjusted retail and food services sales totaled $735.0 billion during the month, which virtually unchanged (±0.4 percent)* from November’s revised sales of $735.1 billion, but was 2.4 percent (±0.5 percent) above the adjusted sales in December of last year…November’s seasonally adjusted sales were revised more than 0.1% lower, from $735.9 billion to $735.1 billion, while October’s sales were revised less than 0.1% lower, from $731.4 billion to $731.051 billion; as a result, the October to November sales change was left unchanged at 0.6 (±0.3)…..for the entire year, sales totaled $8,699.7 billion, 3.7 percent (±0.4 percent) higher than the sales of the 12 months of 2024….estimated unadjusted sales, extrapolated from surveys of a small sampling of retailers, indicated December’s actual sales rose 10.9%, from $736,345 million in November to $816,510 million in December, while they were up 3.8% from the $786,673 million of sales in December a year ago, so we can see how the large December seasonal adjustment knocked the big holiday sales increase down to nothing…

Since it’s the end of the quarter and the end of the year for retail sales, we’ll include the entire table from this report showing retail sales by business type, including the quarter over quarter data…again, to explain what this table shows, the first double column below shows us the seasonally adjusted percentage change in sales for each kind of business from the November revised figure to this month’s December “advance” figure in the first sub-column, and then the year over year percentage sales change since last December in the 2nd column; the second double column pair below gives us the revision of the November advance estimates (now called “preliminary”) as of this report, with the new October to November percentage change under the “Oct 2025 r” (revised) heading and the November 2024 to November 2025 percentage change as revised in the 2nd column of that middle pair, under “Nov 2023 r” (for your reference, the table from the advance estimate of November sales, before this month’s revisions, is here)…. Then, the third pair of columns shows the percentage change of the most recent 3 months of this year’s sales (October, November and December) from the preceding three months of the 3rd quarter (July, August and September) and then from the same three months (October, November and December) of a year earlier….that first column of the last pair thus gives us a snapshot comparison of 3rd quarter sales to fourth quarter sales, which could be useful in estimating the impact of retail sales on 4th quarter GDP, once those sales are adjusted for price changes…

To compute December’s real personal consumption of goods data for national accounts from this December retail sales report, the BEA will initially use the corresponding price changes from the December consumer price index, which are included in our review of January above…to estimate what they will find, we’ll first separate out the volatile sales of gasoline from the other totals…from the third line on the above table, we can see that December retail sales excluding the 0.3% increase in sales at gas stations were also unchanged….Then, subtracting the figures representing the 0.2% increase in grocery & beverage sales and the 0.1% decrease in food services sales from that total, we find that core retail sales were down by less than 0.1% for the month…since the December CPI report showed that the composite price index for all goods less food and energy goods was unchanged in December, we can thus estimate that real retail sales, excluding food and energy sales, will also show an decrease of less than 0.1%… however, the actual adjustment for each of the types of sales shown above will vary by the change in the related price index…for instance, while nominal sales at motor vehicles and parts dealers were down 0.2%, the price index for transportation commodities other than fuel decreased by 0.3%, which would suggest that real sales at motor vehicles and parts dealers were actually 0.1% higher…in like manner, while nominal sales at clothing stores were 0.7% lower in December, the apparel price index was 0.6% higher, which would mean that real sales of clothing fell by around 1.3%.…similarly, while nominal sales at furniture stores were down 0.9%, the price index for household furnishings and supplies was 0.5% higher, which would suggest that real sales at furniture stores fell by almost 1.4%..

In addition to figuring those core retail sales, to make a complete estimate of real December PCE, we’ll need to adjust food and energy retail sales for their price changes separately, just as the BEA will do.…The CPI report showed that the food price index was 0.7% higher in December, with the index for food purchased for use at home 0.7% higher and prices for food bought to eat at restaurants also 0.7% higher… hence, with nominal sales at food and beverage stores just 0.2% higher, that was due to higher prices, and real sales of food and beverages were about 0.5% lower…likewise, 0.1% lower nominal sales at bars and restaurants, once adjusted for 0.7% higher prices, suggests that real sales at bars and restaurants fell about 0.8%…meanwhile, while sales at gas stations were up 0.3%, there was a 0.5% decrease in the retail price of gasoline, which would suggest real sales of gasoline were up by about 0.8%, with the caveat that gasoline stations do sell more than gasoline, and those other sales should not be adjusted with gasoline prices….by weighing and averaging the real sales changes that we have thus estimated back together, and excluding food services, we can estimate that the income and outlays report for December will show that real personal consumption of goods rose by less than 0.1% for the month, after rising by an revised 0.5% in November, and after rising by an revised 0.3% in October, falling by 0.4% in September, and rising by 0.4% in August…at the same time, the 0.8% decrease in real sales at bars and restaurants would have a modest negative impact on December’s real personal consumption of services…

With those estimates for the relative change in real PCE goods between the months of the 3rd and the 4th quarter, we should be able to also crudely estimate the change in PCE goods between those two quarters….by setting July’s real PCE goods as an index equal to 100, we can then say that August’s real PCE goods would be equal to 100.4, and from that, we’d get index values of 100.0 for September, 100.3 for October, 100.8 for November, and 100.9 for December….we then compute the quarter over quarter change in those index values at an annual rate to determine the probable change that would be applied to 4th quarter GDP… (((100.3 + 100.8 + 100.9 )/3) / ((100 + 100.5 + 100.0 )/3)) ^4 = 1.02011672, which means that real PCE goods are rising at an 2.0% annual rate over the fourth quarter, based on our very rough estimates for the percentage change between real PCE goods of the 3rd and the 4th quarter months….since real PCE goods has been running at 23.6% of GDP, that estimate suggests that 4th quarter PCE goods would add roughly 0.47 percentage points to the growth rate of 4th quarter GDP…

Business Sales Rose 0.6% in November, Business Inventories Rose 0.1%

After the release of the December retail sales report, the Census Bureau released the composite Manufacturing and Trade, Inventories and Sales report for November (pdf), which incorporates the revised November retail data from that December report and the earlier published November wholesale and factory data to give us a complete picture of the business contribution to the economy for that month….according to the Census Bureau, total manufacturer’s and trade sales were estimated to be valued at a seasonally adjusted $1,955.1 billion in November, up 0.56 (±0.2 percent) from October’s revised sales, and up 3.5 percent (±0.3 percent) from November sales of a year earlier…note that total October sales were concurrently revised from the previously reported $1,943.7 billion to $1,943.249 billion, but are still down 0.2% from September….manufacturer’s sales fell 0.1% to $606,337 million in November; while retail trade sales, which exclude restaurant & bar sales from the revised November retail sales reported earlier, rose 0.5% to $634,711 million, and wholesale sales were 1.3% higher at $714,091 million..

Meanwhile, total manufacturer’s and trade inventories, a major component of GDP, were estimated to be valued at a seasonally adjusted $2,678.3 billion at the end of November, up 0.1 percent (±0.1 percent) from October, and 1.2 percent (±0.3 percent) higher than in November a year earlier…at the same time, the value of end of October inventories was revised from the $2,677.8 billion reported a month ago to $2,676.6 billion, and are now just 0.2% higher than September…. seasonally adjusted inventories of manufacturers were estimated to be valued at $948,380 million, 0.1% higher than in October, while inventories of retailers were valued at $814,921 million, 0.1% lower than in October, and while inventories of wholesalers were estimated to be valued at $914,970 million at the end of November, 0.2% higher than October…

For GDP purposes, all inventories, including retail, will be adjusted for inflation with appropriate component price indices of the producer price index for November, which averaged 0.8% higher for finished goods; and hence most of November’s real inventories would be lower….two week ago, we looked at real factory inventories with price adjustments for goods at various stages of production, and judged that a negligible 4th quarter real factory inventory increase would reverse a big 3rd quarter decrease and also add any 4th quarter increase to the growth rate of 4th quarter GDP…also two weeks ago, we found that any 4th quarter real wholesale inventory increase would reverse a modest 3rd quarter decrease and also add the 4th quarter increase to the growth rate of 4th quarter GDP….since nominal retail inventories for November have now been reported to be 0.1% lower, real retail inventories for the month, considering the 0.8% finished goods price adjustment, would have thus been down about 0.9% from October, after a real 0.9% increase in that month…since real inventories were modestly lower in the 3rd quarter and subtracted 0.22 percentage points from the 3rd quarter’s GDP, the negligible change in real retail inventories decrease we now have indicated for the 4th quarter months would reverse that modest 3rd quarter decrease and add those 0.22 percentage points back to the growth rate of 4th quarter GDP…

Existing Home Sales Fell 8.4% in January; Median Sales Price Down 8.3% from June

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that existing home sales fell by 8.4% from December to January on a seasonally adjusted basis, projecting that 3.91 million existing homes would sell over an entire year if the January home sales pace were extrapolated over that year, a pace that was also 4.4% below the 4.09 million annual sales rate projected for January of a year ago…December’s home sales are now shown to have been running at a 4.27 million annual rate, revised down from the 4.35 million annual rate indicated by last month’s report..

the NAR also reported that the median sales price for all existing-home types was $396,800 in January, 0.9% higher than in January a year earlier, which they report is “the 31st consecutive month of year-over-year price increases.” even as the median existing-home sales price is now down 8.3% since June…the NAR press release, which is titled “NAR Existing-Home Sales Report Shows 8.4% Decrease in January“, is in easy to read plain English, so if you’re interested in more details on housing inventories, cash sales, distressed sales, first time home buyers, etc., you can easily read about those things in that press release…as sales of existing properties do not add to our national output, neither these home sales nor the prices for which these homes sell are included in GDP, except insofar as real estate, local government and banking services are rendered during the selling process…

Since this report is seasonally adjusted and at a not very informative annual rate, we usually take a look at the raw data overview (pdf) to see what actually happened during the month…this unadjusted data indicates that roughly 223,000 homes sold in January, down by 35% from the 346,000 homes that sold in December, and down 7.1% from the 240,000 homes that sold in January of last year, so we can see how a large mid-winter seasonal adjustment boosted the reported headline sales figure…that same pdf indicates that the median home selling price for all housing types fell 2.0% over the month, the 6th decrease in seven months, from a revised $405,100 in December to $396,800 in January, which was also down 2.4% from the $414,300 median sales price of 2025….Regional median prices in January ranged from $295,400 in the Midwest and $351,200 in the South to $505,400 in the Northeast and $600,400 in the West…

(the above is the synopsis that accompanied my regular sunday morning news links emailing, which in turn was mostly selected from my weekly blog post on the global glass onion…if you’d be interested in receiving my weekly emailing of selected links, most of which are chosen from the aforementioned GGO posts, contact me…)