Burbank Real Estate Blog

Monday 27

Existing Home Sales-consensus 5.70M..... Year to year this number has dropped 11.4% and housing supply at 8.8 months.  June sales were down 3.8%.

3 & 6 Month Bill Auction 

Tuesday 28

ICSC-USB Store Sales  Tracks comparable weekly sales from major retail chains and represents 10% of total retail sales.  Is considered to be one of the most timely indicators of consumer spending.

Redbook a timely indicator of consumer spending and also represents about 10% of total retail sales.  This measure tracks weekly sales from discounters, chain and department stores.

Consumer Confidence -Consensus 105

FOMC Minutes 

4 Week Bill Auction & 20 Year Tips Auction

Wednesday 29

MBA Purchase Applications measures applications at mortgage lenders.  This is considered a leading indicator for single family home sales and housing construction.

EIA Petroleum Status Report reports on crude oil inventories in the U.S. 

2 Year Note Auction 

Thursday 30

GDP Consensus 4.0%

Corporate Profits 

Jobless Claims Unemployment claims.  Consensus 320K

Help Wanted Index  

EIA Natural Gas Report-Tracks natural gas inventories.

3 and 6 month Treasury Bill Announcement Investors use this data to attempt to predict future Federal Reserve policy.

5 Year Auction 

Money Supply

Friday 31

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Economic Symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyo .

Personal Income Outlays-Consensus .3% Consumer spending Consensus is .4% Another measure to gauge consumer spending power.

NAPM-Chicago-Consensus 53-Business conditions in the Chicago area, another measure of economic growth.

Farm Prices

Consumer Sentiment Consensus 82.5

Factory Orders Consensus 3.2%

My website is under construction, but come visit me at anaconnell.com!

 
“I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense.”

 Harold Kushner

Beth Bastian book meme'd me and I have to say that I had a very hard time narrowing my choices down to 5 books!   Here goes:

Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life Author-Spencer Johnson

Insightful look at how we deal with change.

 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)  Author-JK Rowling. 

I would recommend the complete series.  Excellent adventure for the mind!

This one's been around forever, but still a good read.

1.

Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace  Author-Gordon Mackenzie 

Recently recommended to me by Jeff Turner, thank you Jeff!

Should be required reading for anyone working in corporate America!!!!  Very funny and very true!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Author- Douglas Adams

Alot of fun, so well written!!!!

And there you have it!!!!!

Ok, I'll book meme Ricardo Bueno!  Tag you're it! 

Thought I would write a post that highlights certain items of interest coming up at the next Burbank City Council Meeting.

This week the Burbank City Council will be discussing the following items of interest:

Quiet Zone

This resolution, if passed, will look into designating the Buena Vista Street rail crossing a quiet zone.  What this means to you is that for a 1/2 mile either way, trains cannot sound their horns.  

Glenoaks Rehab

Council is looking into approving an agreement with City of Glendale where a Burbank portion of Glenoaks Bl.  would be included in City of Glendale's rehabilitation project.  City of Burbank would contribute a portion of the cost, not to exceed $108,530.

The Burbank City Council meets at City Council Chambers in City Hall, 275 E. Olive Ave.  Tuesday at 6:30pm. 

My website is under construction, but come visit me at anaconnell.com! 

Serving all of your real estate needs in the Burbank/Toluca Lake area! 

Monday  20

Leading Indicators-Consensus .4% -Report looks at ten different sources that are supposed to indicate overall economic activity.  This figure tends to be revised after the fact and does not do a great job of predicting downturns or upturns.

 3 Month & 6 Month Bill Auction

Tuesday 21

 ICSC-USB Store Sales  Tracks comparable weekly sales from major retail chains and represents 10% of total retail sales.  Is considered to be one of the most timely indicators of consumer spending.

Redbook a timely indicator of consumer spending and also represents about 10% of total retail sales.  This measure tracks weekly sales from discounters, chain and department stores.

State Street Investor Confidence Index Measures actual levels of risk in investor portofolio.

Wednesday 22

MBA Purchase Applications-Measures Mortgage Lender applications, this is considered a leading indicator of single family home sales!

EIA  Petroleum Status Report-Measures petroleum inventories in the US

Thursday 23 

EIA Natural Gas Report

Money Supply

Friday 24

New Home Sales Consensus 820,000-Housing supply stands at 7.8 months for new homes and 8.8 months for existing homes.  New Home sales were down by 6.6% in June.

Durable Goods Orders Consensus  1.0%-This report takes into account the current and future number of orders placed with factories.  By showing how busy factories will be in the coming months you can get an indication of economic activity and health of the overall economy.

Aside from any subprime news , Asia's reaction to the Federal Reserve's surprise rate cut  last Friday will be front and center. 

Last week was interesting as equities spiraled down the first four days to rebound on Friday, aided by the Fed's surprise rate cut.  We did see wide swings throughout the week, sometimes 300 points, during the course of a single day.  One of the things that caused last week’s credit crunch was that banks were beginning to wait on incoming payments before making payments to their creditors in order to avoid being in the negative on cash. The Fed essentially told banks not to worry about waiting on payments because they can go to the discount window and get the reserves you need. The Fed also expanded the loan period to 30 days to those needing it.

Questions to ponder......

Will the Fed cut rates?

Will Consumer spending/strength continue?

Will Crude oil prices, the middle east situation or any other fly in the ointment impact stock prices and interest rates?

Have a great week everyone!

My website is under construction, but come visit me at anaconnell.com!

And what a week it was! 

We saw housing starts and permits fall to their lowest level since 1996!  Then Merrill Lynch put out a report suggesting that Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, could go bankrupt, naturally they lowered the stock rating to a sell.  Next day, Countrywide had to tap it's $11.5 billion dollar bank line to finance it's operations.  Not good news.

Today the Fed took action to lower the discount rate by .5% to 5.75% and infuse dollars into the system to try and counteract the liquidity squeeze that we are seeing.  This was viewed as an extraordinary move as the Fed has not reacted this way since 2001.  

This action by the Fed did serve to stem the market losses for the week and give us the biggest rally in four years for the S&P 500.  

The subprime fallout is still surging through the markets......we'll see what or who gets hit next. 

My website is under construction, but please feel free to visit me at anaconnell.com! 

Monday 13

Retail Sales- Consensus 0.2

3 Month & 6 Month Bill Auction

Tuesday 14

Producer Price Index  PPI Consensus Forecast for July 07: +0.1 percent 

Redbook a timely indicator of consumer spending and also represents about 10% of total retail sales.  This measure tracks weekly sales from discounters, chain and department stores.

International Trade Gauges economic trends by measuring levels of imports and exports.

4 Week bill Auction

Housing Market Index-Produced by the National Association of Home Builders.  This is a survey which is filled out by the members of this organization and it gives their opinion of the general state of the housing market and the economy.

Empire State Manufacturing Survey-monthly survey of manufacturers in New York State.Consensus 18

Industrial Production Consensus  $-61.0B

Treasury Int'l Capital-measures foreign demand for our debt and assets by tracking flows of financial instruments into and out of the U.S.

CPI-Consumer Price Index- measures average price of a fixed set of goods and services used by consumers.

MBA Purchase Applications measures applications at mortgage lenders.  This is considered a leading indicator for single family home sales and housing construction.

EIA Petroleum Status Report reports on crude oil inventories in the U.S.

 Thursday 16

Housing Starts Consensus 1.410M  Starts slipped in May by a revised 3.4%, followed by a rebound of 2.3% Starts are projected to remain weak for July.

Jobless Claims Unemployment claims. Consensus 315k

EIA Natural Gas Report-Tracks natural gas inventories.

Leading Indicators -Consensus -.1%

Philidelphia Fed Survey- Consensus 8.0...the lower the number indicates a slower growth rate for manufacturing.

3 , 6 month Treasury Bill Annoucement  Investors use this data to attempt to predict future Federal Reserve policy.

Money Supply

Friday 17

Consumer Sentiment Consensus 88

Well, last week was interesting to say the least! 

We saw an extremely volatile week as it looks like the subprime mess is seeping into other parts of the economy.  Stocks ended the week a bit higher, first time in 4 weeks, betting that the government will provide some sort of bail out for this mess.  Basically the subprime loans that were packaged into funds that people could invest in have little or in most cases no liquidity, which means people can't get their money out.  Additionally you have all the folks looking at foreclosure because they can't pay their higher mortgage payments as they readjust.

Some interesting reports due out this week, so we'll see what happens next! 

Have a great week!

Remember to click on the links for more information on each report.

My website is under construction, but come visit me at anaconnell.com!

If you are like me and try to recycle as much as possible you will want to read on!

If you have any batteries, old eyeglasses, cartridges from your printers, CD's and DVD's you can take them to your local Burbank library!   Just bring them to any Burbank library location and they will take care of recycling these items.

While I'm talking about recycling, please don't forget to call City of Burbank to take away your bulky items!  This free service is available by calling the Bulky Hotline at 818-238-3805. Just give them two days notice and they will come by on your regular collection day to pick up your items. 

Construction and demolition materials are not included!

My website is under construction, but come visit me at anaconnell.com! 

Are you thinking about buying a bicycle or getting back on the dusty one in your garage after watching the Tour De France?  

If you are, then you might want to check out the great online maps that are available for bike paths in Los Angeles County.  Another great place to look is Los Angeles Department of Transportation's (LADOT) Bicycle Maps page which has a list of bicycle path maps throughout Southern California.

The great thing is that you can go for short scenic rides, such as the Chandler Bike Path or get your heart racing with a longer jaunt.  The dedicated bike path along the Los Angeles River is great if you want to take the kids and not have to worry about traffic.  The only downside is you are right next to the 5 Fwy as well.   

This is a great way to enjoy your neighborhood and get some exercise, but please, learn proper road etiquette and wear a helmet, don't take a risk, like the girl in my cartoon!  

Test your knowledge of bicycle safety!

Summer is almost over, go out and enjoy our great weather!!!

My website is under construction, but come visit me at anaconnell.com!

Monday  6

 
3 & 6 Month Bill Auction

Treasury Strips

Tuesday  7

 
ICSC-USB Store Sales  Tracks comparable weekly sales from major retail chains and represents 10% of total retail sales.  Is considered to be one of the most timely indicators of consumer spending.

Redbook a timely indicator of consumer spending and also represents about 10% of total retail sales.  This measure tracks weekly sales from discounters, chain and department stores.

Productivity and Costs  This report looks at the growth or lack thereof in the efficiency of our labor force relative to the production of goods and services.

FOMC Monetary Policy Announcement

Consumer Credit  

This report represents the overall value of outstanding consumer credit debt.  Very simply put, if demand exceeds supply, interest rates rise.

4 Week bill Auction

Wednesday  8

MBA Purchase Applications measures applications at mortgage lenders.  This is considered a leading indicator for single family home sales and housing construction.

EIA Petroleum Status Report reports on crude oil inventories in the U.S. 

Wholesale Trade-This report is a measure of economic growth in that it looks at sales made and inventories held by wholesalers. 

10 Year Note Auction 

Thursday  9

 
Jobless Claims Unemployment claims. 

EIA Natural Gas Report-Tracks natural gas inventories.

3 and 6 month Treasury Bill Announcement , 30 year Bond Auction Investors use this data to attempt to predict future Federal Reserve policy.

Chain Store Sales Another indicator of consumer spending trends.

Money Supply

Friday 10

RBC Cash Index Monthly national survey of consumer attitudes on the state of the economy.  Consumer spending accounts for two thirds of the economy, so this tends to be an important index.

Treasury Budget 

This week markets will be probably on hold pending the FOMC Announcement on Tuesday. 

Last week proved very volatile following some weak data and the Dow suffered a 281.42 point loss, or 2.1%, to 13,181.91 on Friday.    Of note is that the S&P 500 suffered the biggest 3 week decline, 7.7% from July 13th, since 2003

For those Burbank and Toluca Lake residents looking to increase your academic prowess or just learn something new, the Burbank Adult School Fall 2007 Class schedule is out!

The Burbank Adult School includes but is not limited to classes for:

Parenting

Computer Literacy

Foreign Languages 

Health Occupations Training

Photography

and much more!!!!

This campus is conveniently located at:

3811 Allan Avenue
Burbank, CA 91505 

For more information, please call (818) 558-4611.