April’s confidence index and March new home sales were announced from the USA.
The Conference Board (CB) consumer confidence index fell to 101.3 from 104.0 in April.
The current situation index, which measures the consumer’s assessment of current business and labor market conditions, one of the sub-groups in the index, rose from 148.9 to 151.1. Near-term expectations fell from 74.0 to 68.1.
Ataman Özyıldırım, Economy Director of The Conference Board, which prepared the data, evaluated the index. Özyıldırım stated that consumers are pessimistic about the outlook of the labor market and that the decline in expectations has fallen below the level that signals economic recession.
Significant rise in new home sales
Another data announced today was new home sales. New home sales in the US increased by 1.1% in February. However, the rate has been revised very drastically today and has been updated as -3.5%.
In March, there was an increase of 9.6% in new house sales. Sales increased by 60,000 to 683,000 in March. While sales increased on a monthly basis, annual sales remained low by 3.4% compared to March 2022. In March 2022, sales were 707 thousand. Considering the calculation including the revision, new home sales showed the best monthly performance after August.
The average selling price of new homes in March was $449,800.
