BUYER’S MARKET: Home prices cooled across the country in the second quarter, with sales down seven percent from a year ago, the latest indication that the housing market is slowing.
“With more sellers competing for the pool of buyers, the pressure on home prices has evaporated in most metro areas,” said David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.
The median single-family home price was $227,500 in the quarter, up 3.7 percent from $219,400 a year earlier.
The median home price in the Denver/Aurora metro area was $255,200, up 2.7 percent from a year ago; in Colorado Springs, it was $218,300, up 5.3 percent; in the Boulder metro area, $373,200, up 7.8 percent.
INFLATION TAMED?: The producer price index rose the smaller amount in five months – just .1 percent in July – after a .5 percent hike in June, according to a government report out today. The core reading, which excludes volatile energy and food costs, actually fell .3 percent – the biggest drop in three years. The consumer price index is out Wednesday.
“Inflation is more under control this month,” Steve Sachs, head of trading at Rydex Investments, told Bloomberg News. “It effectively means the rate hike cycle is done.”
The Dow popped 45 points in early trading as investors also absorbed earnings reports from the big boxes: Wal-Mart, Staples and Home Depot.
LAND SALE: Westcore Properties Inc. of San Diego will buy the entire suburban Denver/Colorado Springs property and land porftoloio of Mack-Cali Realty Corp. for $195.3 million, the companies announced today.
The assets include 19 office buildings totaling 1.4 million square feet, plus 7.1 acres of vacant land and 1.6 acres of land dedicated to a parking facility.
The bigger buildings include the URS Center at 8181 East Tufts Ave. in Englewood; Pyramid Point at 9777 Pyramid Court in Englewood; and three buildings totaling more than 200,000 square feet at Briargate in the Springs.
THE KICKER: If you ever wondered why left-handed men (but not women) make more than their right-handed peers, a research paper titled, yes, “Handedness and Earnings” is here to help. “Left-handed men with at least some college education earned 15 percent more than similarly educated right-handers, while those who finished college earned about 26 percent more,” Reuters reported, citing a National Bureau of Economic Research paper written by Christopher S. Ruebeck, Joseph E. Harrington, Jr. and Robert Moffitt.
