By: Fred Arnold

Santa Clarita Real Estate & Market Report: November 21, 2014: The stock market may have traded in a narrow range of 100 points for the week, but that does not mean there was a lack of economic data available for investors to grab onto.

For the housing market, a few major reports were released of which some signs of housing market improvement have appeared. The housing starts report continues the pattern of going up and down as it has over the last few months. Although the overall report shows that starts declined for the month of October, the inspiring part of the report is that single family homes rose by 2.4 percent.

Additionally, overall starts are 7.8 percent higher than the same time last year.

Furthering the trend of positive housing news, existing home sales continued their slow rise in October by gaining 1.5 percent.  This follows September’s increase of 2.6 percent.

Supply of homes slipped to 5.1 months down from 5.3 months in the prior month. Although supply has declined, demand has also tapered somewhat as we approach the holiday season. (Actually, by all account we are already in the holiday season as I have seen Christmas lights and holiday sales since the first day of November.)

In other news, there was little market reaction to the release of the Fed’s FOMC Minutes. Nothing in the report came as a surprise to investors.

The government’s stimulus program is over and the markets continue to be humming along. The Fed continued to express concern about slowing economies in Europe and Asia.

Santa Clarita Real Estate & Market Report

Inflation continues to remain virtually non-existent. The Consumer Price Index remained unchanged for the month of October. Inflation from the same time last year is up 1.7 percent which is considered very low and has not given the Fed reason to raise interest rates.

Finally, first time jobless claims remain low and stable at 291,000. This is compared to the prior week’s report of 293,000.

The one big question is how will these numbers translate into the November employment numbers which will be released the first Friday in December?

Although next week is a holiday shortened week as the markets are closed on Thursday and most investors take off on Friday, there is no shortage of key economic data being released on Tuesday and Wednesday.

• Tuesday November 25th – GDP, FHFA House Price Index, S&P Case-Shiller HPI
• Wednesday November  26th – MBA Mortgage Apps, Durable Goods Orders, First Time Jobless, Claims, New Home Sales, Pending Home Sales
• Thursday November 27th – Thanksgiving: All Markets Closed