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FILE PHOTO: Workers construct a new home in Leyden Rock in Arvada, Colorado, U.S. August 30, 2016. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo
April 22, 2019
By Lucia Mutikani
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. home sales fell more than expected in March, pointing to continued weakness in the housing market despite declining mortgage rates and slowing house price gains.
The sharp drop in home sales reported by the National Association of Realtors on Monday came ahead of the busy spring selling season. The housing market continues to buck the broader economy, which has shown signs of gaining momentum after stumbling at the turn of the year.
Existing home sales dropped 4.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.21 million units last month. February’s sales pace was revised down to 5.48 million units from the previously reported 5.51 million units.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast existing home sales would fall 3.8 percent to a rate of 5.30 million units last month. Existing home sales, which make up about 90 percent of U.S. home sales, declined 5.4 percent from a year ago. That was the 13th straight year-on-year decrease in home sales.
LAND SHORTAGES
Falling mortgage rates, strengthening wage growth and slowing house price inflation have improved affordability, but housing supply remains tight, especially at the lower end of the market as land and labor shortages are making it difficult for builders to ramp up construction in this market segment.
The 30-year fixed mortgage rate has dropped from a peak of about 4.94 percent in November to around 4.12 percent, according to data from mortgage finance agency Freddie Mac. Wage growth is also strengthening.
A survey last week showed that while builders reported strong demand for new homes in April, they also complained about “affordability concerns stemming from a chronic shortage of construction workers and buildable lots.”
There were steep declines in sales in the lower and upper ends of the housing market last month.
The dollar slipped against a basket of currencies after the release of the existing home sales data. Stocks on Wall Street were trading lower and U.S. Treasury prices fell.
Last month, existing home sales fell in all four regions. There were 1.68 million previously owned homes on the market in March, up from 1.63 million in February. At March’s sales pace, it would take 3.9 months to exhaust the current inventory, up from 3.6 months in February.
A six-to-seven-month supply is viewed as a healthy balance between supply and demand. The median existing house price increased 3.8 percent from a year ago to $259,400 in March.
The Commerce Department reported last Friday that housing starts dropped to a rate of 1.139 million units in March, the lowest level since May 2017.
That was the second straight monthly drop in homebuilding and pushed starts substantially below the 1.5 million to 1.6 million units per month range that realtors estimate is needed to alleviate the shortage.
Houses for sale typically stayed on the market for 36 days in March, down from 44 days in February but up from 30 days a year ago. About 47 percent of homes sold in March were on the market for less than a month.
First-time buyers accounted for a third of sales last month, little changed from February and up from 30 percent a year ago. Economists and realtors say a 40 percent share of first-time buyers is needed for a robust housing market.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao)
Source: OANN
RALEIGH, N.C. – Police say they arrested two people who climbed and placed Ku Klux Klan hoods on statues at a Confederate monument in North Carolina.
News outlets report that Enzo Niebuhr and Jody Anderson were detained Sunday during a protest near the North Carolina Women of the Confederacy monument. The monument is located in the capital of Raleigh near the Statehouse.
Police said Niebuhr and Anderson are charged with defacing a public monument and disorderly conduct. The reports did not say whether the two have attorneys who can speak on their behalf.
The news outlets quote the “Smash Racism Raleigh” group as saying that its members were holding a peaceful protest to provide context about the history of the statues. The group says Niebuhr and Anderson shouldn’t have been arrested.
Source: Fox News National
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President Trump never said he wanted to “get rid” of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and instead cooperated fully with his investigation, according to one of the president’s former attorneys.
John Dowd, who served as a member of President Trump’s legal team from June 2017 until March 2018, discussed Trump’s approach to Mueller during an interview on “Fox & Friends” Monday.
Frequent media accounts prior to the release of the report suggested Trump tried to fire Mueller at times during the Russia investigation. The report itself said Trump told then-White House Counsel Don McGahn in June 2017 to tell the acting attorney general that Mueller “must be removed.” McGahn refused.
But asked on Monday when Trump said to fire Mueller, Dowd said: “He never did. I was there at the same time that the report says McGahn mentioned this, and I was assigned to deal with Mueller and briefed the president every day.
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“At no time did the president ever say, ‘you know, John, I’m going to get rid of him.’ It was the opposite.
“Here’s the message the president had for Bob Mueller, he told me to carry — number one, you tell him I respect what he is doing; number two, you tell him he has my full cooperation; number three, get it done as quickly as possible; and number four, whatever else you need, let me know.
“That was always the message and that is exactly what we did.”
Dowd continued, saying he spoke to Mueller about the president’s frequent public criticism of the investigation.
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“I talked to Bob about that. I said, ‘do you understand what’s going on?’ and he said, ‘oh, it’s political, he has to do that for political reasons’.
“I said, ‘I tell you what, the president and I will make sure, we’ll say publicly cooperate with Bob Mueller’ and we did early on. So that was it.”
Host Steve Doocy then asked Dowd about “the suggestion from the report that Don McGahn, the president’s attorney, was told go out and fire him” Mueller.
“I just I think there was a misunderstanding,” Dowd said.
“I just don’t believe it. I think the president simply wanted McGahn to call Rosenstein, have him vetted, because the president believed Mueller did have some conflicts.”
Source: Fox News Politics
Islamic terrorism is a threat spreading to different parts of the world, Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee said Monday in wake of the Sri Lanka Easter Sunday massacre.
Huckabee, the former Arkansas Governor, told “Fox & Friends” said Sunday’s attack should remind everyone of the challenges faced across the globe in fighting the scourge of terrorism.
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“It’s global. It’s not just targeted to a handful of countries like the United States…not just targeted to Middle Eastern countries…it’s a global war on terrorism,” Huckabee said.
“These are cowardly people who go after innocents. These aren’t folks who take on a military. These are people who blow up innocent people, in this case, people who are going to church, people who are celebrating the holiest day for Christians around the world, and nothing could be more cowardly, nothing could be more disgusting, and it shows you the character of those who were involved in this kind of terror.”
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His comments came after it was reported authorities in Sri Lanka received warnings a domestic radical Muslim group would attack the nation on the Christian holy day.
Despite multiple warnings from international intelligence agencies, however, Sri Lanka’s security officials reportedly failed to heed the alerts and apparently took no action to protect against a potential attack. Authorities were first alerted to the threat April 4.
More than two weeks later, near-simultaneous blasts detonated at three churches and three luxury hotels in and around Colombo, the capital city. Two more explosions occurred hours later outside of Colombo – one at a guesthouse and the other near an overpass.
At least 290 people – including 39 foreigners – were killed and more than 500 people were injured. The government on Monday said the attacks were likely perpetrated by local militant group National Thowfeek Jaamath, a little-known radical Islamist organization.
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Experts told the New York Times the group promotes an Islamic terrorist ideology.
“These attacks appear to be quite different and look as if they came right out of the ISIS, Al Qaeda, global militant jihadist playbook, as these are attacks fomenting religious hatred by attacking multiple churches on a high religious holiday,” Anne Speckhard, the director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism, told the newspaper.
Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said international agencies warned of possible attacks several times beginning in early April. He said the defense ministry wrote to the police chief on April 9 to give law enforcement a heads up about the intelligence, including providing the group’s name.
Two days later, on April 11, police wrote to the heads of security of the judiciary and diplomatic security division about the warnings. It was not immediately clear what action, if any, was taken in response.
Top government officials, including Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his Cabinet, were reportedly kept in the dark about the intelligence until after the attack – which Senaratne blamed on political dysfunction within the government.
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“We must look into why adequate precautions were not taken,” Wickremesinghe said Sunday.
An investigation has been launched into the apparent breakdown of communication within the government.
Source: Fox News World
FILE – This composite sketch released July 17, 2017, by the Indiana State Police shows the man they consider the main suspect in the killings of teenage girls Liberty German, and Abigail Williams who disappeared from a hiking trail near their hometown of Delphi on Feb. 13, 2017. State Police are to make an announcement about the investigation into the 2017 killings of the two girls found dead on a hiking trail. State police say Superintendent Doug Carter will discuss how the investigation has gone in a “new direction” during a Monday April 22, 2019 news conference in Delphi. (Indiana State Police via AP, File)
DELPHI, Ind. – The Latest on the investigation into the killings of two northern Indiana girls (all times local):
10:25 a.m.
A spokesman says Indiana State Police will release “very significant information” about the 2017 deaths of two teenage girls who were killed during a hiking trip.
Agency spokesman Sgt. Kim Riley said Monday that no arrest warrants have been issued and no arrests have been made in the killings of 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams. But he says investigators will release new information Monday about the unsolved case.
Riley says State Police Superintendent Doug Carter and a State Police captain will be making statements but won’t take questions.
The teenagers’ bodies were found in February 2017 in a rugged, wooded area a day after they went hiking near Delphi, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) northwest of Indianapolis.
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9:44 a.m.
Indiana State Police are to make an announcement about the investigation into the 2017 killings of two teenage girls.
State police say Superintendent Doug Carter will discuss how the investigation has gone in a “new direction” during a midday Monday news conference in Delphi.
The bodies of 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams were found in February 2017 in a rugged, wooded area, one day after they went hiking near Delphi, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) northwest of Indianapolis. The slayings remain unsolved.
Investigators have reviewed thousands of leads looking for a man who forced the teens off the trail, ordering them to go “down the hill.” Police also have released a composite sketch from eyewitnesses who believe they saw the man in Delphi.
Source: Fox News National
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