Housing has spent 2026 running in place, and Zonda Chief Economist Ali Wolf doesn’t expect the picture to change much before 2027. Wolf delivered the national portion of Zonda’s third quarter housing market forecast webinar on Tuesday, saying that existing- and new-home sales are tracking essentially flat with 2025, with the firm now calling 2026…
As 2026 moves forward amid rising inflation and a fairly soft labor market, are leading indicators pointing to a better near-term economy? The nonprofit research firm The Conference Board’s latest monthly Leading Economic Indicators report found a slight decline as the Board’s Leading Economic Index hit 99.1 in June, a 0.2% downturn compared to the…
Following consumer sentiment rising in June, the latest University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index improved further by 9.9% in July, reaching 54.4. However, the indicator declined by 11.8% on an annual basis. The Current Economic Conditions Index rose by 15.1% month-over-month, yet plummeted 19.3% year-over-year to stand at 54.9 in July. Meanwhile, the Index of…
Across the first half of 2026, numerous economic reports revealed high or rising inflation. Some officials of the Federal Reserve, which remains focused on bringing inflation down, have suggested that interest rate hikes could be necessary if inflation does not fall. The latest data from the Consumer Price Index (CPI), maintained by the U.S. Bureau…
The Federal Reserve chose to hold interest rates unchanged at the June Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. The past few months, which have seen both higher inflation and a relatively soft labor market, have also created a sense of deadlock and a wait-and-see attitude among the Fed. While the June vote was ultimately unanimous,…
This year has gone in a direction few could have predicted. A year of expected normalization and stabilization for the housing market ran into new headwinds in the form of a conflict in the Middle East, pushing some economists to shift their outlooks moving forward. Expectations now are still pointing toward some normalization, as seen…
Job growth trended downward and came in below expectations in June, per the latest findings from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This adds another data point as the Federal Reserve moves to consider adjusting interest rates in coming months; in previous months, the Fed has been caught between both rising inflation and a weak…
After a negative report in late May, which came on the heels of three months of gains, nonprofit research firm The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index, which measures American opinions of current economic conditions and their outlook for the next six months, inched up by 0.6 points to 91.2 in June, up from a downwardly…
The latest University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index showed that Americans are upbeat about the economy this month compared with May. The index, which evaluates the relative level of current and future economic conditions through a survey of approximately 500 consumers, recorded a reading of 49.5, compared with May’s 44.8. While the 10.5% month-over-month increase…
The Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index increased 0.7% in May, as the economy continues to absorb tariff impacts and Iran war-related disruption. Excluding food and energy (so-called “core inflation”), the headline PCE price index increased by 0.3%, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Year-over-year, the PCE price index increased…
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