Check out this infograph from Visual Economics.

The success stories of low budget films look tempting enough to invest in. However, don’t be fooled only a small fraction of low budget films make it big. I think we should see an infograph on the failure of low budget films, now I know that would be a never ending infograph haha.

Source: Visual Economics

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Home mortgage rates are at a 6 month high. 

30 year mortgage rate: 4.61% up from 4.46%.

15 year mortgage rate: 3.96% up from 3.81%

Housing demand appears to be slowly picking up. “Existing pending sales jumped 10.4% in October to the strongest pace since April, according to the National Association of Realtors.

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Check out this info chart from VisualEconomics.com.

It’s no surprise that raising a child is expensive, but how much is it really?

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Black Friday kicked off the Holiday shopping season to great start as data begins to trickle in. Below is some visual information.

Highlights:

212 million shoppers visited a store or website, 8.7 up from last year.
The average shopper spent $365.34, up 6.4%.
Online spending up 9% to $648 million
Total Black Friday spending would rise 9.2% to $45 billion.

Source: WSJ

Source: NYT

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Consumer spending has been increasing in recent months. However, that rise will be subdued as stagnant pay and weak hiring remains. Reports are indicating that consumers are tapping into their saving for spending, rather than receiving an increase in pay to fuel their spending habits. Economists have been hinting that the economic recovery would be hampered if employers don’t boost pay and increase hiring.

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Check out this informational chart from VisualEconomics. It’s a very interesting look into an average American family’s finances. Why are they in this mess? What are your thoughts?

Source: www.visualeconomics.com

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Brief rundown;

• Retail sales increased 1.6% from February to March
• February was reported at $355.5 billion
• March was reported $363.2 billion

U.S Census Bureau Report:

“The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for March, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $363.2 billion, an increase of 1.6 percent (±0.5%) from the previous month and 7.6 percent (±0.5%) above March 2009. Total sales for the January through March 2010 period were up 5.5 percent (±0.3%) from the same period a year ago. The January to February 2010 percent change was revised from +0.3 percent (±0.5%)* to +0.5 percent (±0.3%).”

This graph shows the monthly retail sales.

Graph Source: www.calculatedriskblog.com

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Brief rundown;

• Retail sales increased 0.3% from January to February
• Jan was reported at $354.3 billion
• February was reported at $355.5 billion

U.S Census Bureau Report:

“The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for February, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $355.5 billion, an increase of 0.3 percent (±0.5%)* from the previous month and 3.9 percent (±0.5%) above February 2009.”

This graph shows the monthly retail sales.

Graph Source: www.calculatedriskblog.com

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Total retail sales increased 0.5% in January up 4.7% from January 2009, reported by the Commerce Department. Additionally December revised data indicated stronger spending for December (-0.3% -> -0.2%) and November (1.8% -> 2%).

However, high unemployment and uncertainty in job security in the U.S. has tightened consumer spending.

Here’s a brief rundown of January sales;

• Retail & Food Services -> 0.5%
• Auto Sales -> -0.1%
• Department Stores -> 1.5%
• Electronic/Appliance -> 1.2%
• Clothing Stores -> 0.3%

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NAR Press Release: December Existing-Home Sales Down but Prices Rise; 2009 Sales Up

Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – fell 16.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 5.45 million units in December from 6.54 million in November, but remain 15.0 percent above the 4.74 million-unit level in December 2008.

For all of 2009 there were 5,156,000 existing-home sales, which was 4.9 percent higher than the 4,913,000 transactions recorded in 2008; it was the first annual sales gain since 2005.

…

Total housing inventory at the end of December fell 6.6 percent to 3.29 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 7.2-month supply4 at the current sales pace, up from a 6.5-month supply in November.

• On a percentage basis, the 16.7% monthly decline was the largest on record, dating back to 1968;

• Single-family home sales fell 16.8% (SAAR 4.79 million) and are 12.7% above the 4.25 million level in December 2008.

• Single-family sales rose 5.0% to 4,566,000 in 2009.

• First-time buyers purchased 43% of homes, down from 51% in November, according to a NAR survey.

• Median existing-home price for all housing types was $178,300 in December 2009 — a gain of 1.5% higher vs December 2008.

• Total housing inventory at the end of the year was down 6.6% to 3.29 million existing homes for sale — a 7.2-month supply;

• Raw inventory is 11.1% a year ago, the lowest level since March 2006;

Source Reference: NAR, via ritholtz.com 

Existing Home Sales – Non Seasonally Adjusted

 Graph Source: CalculatedRiskBlog.com

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