REALTORS® report "COVID and elections" as the major issues affecting transactions in October 2020.
NAR’s October REALTORS® Confidence Index Report indicates that there is a demographic shift from the cities to the suburbs, or to smaller counties, less dense counties.
Temporary retail store closures experienced earlier in the year have returned.
Seasonally adjusted estimates of the U.S. retail e-commerce sales for Q3 2020 decreased from the Q2 2020 estimate of $211.5 billion to $209.5 billion, which is a decline of 1%.
Mortgage rates hit another record low this week for the thirteenth time this year.
Seasonally adjusted advanced estimates of United States retail and food services sales increased over the prior month as October sales continued the increasing trend.
With a one-week lag, the number of people applying for extended benefits is rising at a slower pace in the last three weeks implying that many people are able to find a job.
At the national level, housing affordability declined in September 2020 compared to a year ago but rose compared to August.
Mortgage rates rose sharply this week, following the trend of the 10-year Treasury yields. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased to an average of 2.84% from 2.78% the previous week.
The annual inflation rate is decelerating, rising for the fifth straight month in October though at a slower pace as the economy gradually recovers from the COVID effect.
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