{"id":1004074651,"date":"2013-05-23T06:37:28","date_gmt":"2013-05-23T14:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004074651"},"modified":"2022-12-06T15:50:39","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T23:50:39","slug":"economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\/","title":{"rendered":"Economy Watch: Existing Home Sales Up; FOMC Mulls QE3 Wind Down; Bernanke Takes Congress to Task over Austerity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor<\/em><span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The National Association of Realtors reported on Wednesday that existing home sales were up 0.6 percent in April, from an annualized rate of 4.94 million units to 4.97 million units (including all single-family, condos and coop residences). Compared with April 2012, when the annualized rate was 4.53 million units, sales activity is up 9.7 percent.<span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Total U.S. housing inventory at the end of April rose 11.9 percent because of a seasonal increase to 2.16 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 5.2-month supply at the current sales pace. That compares with 4.7 months in March. A more revealing comparison\u2014because inventories always go up in the spring\u2014is that listed inventory is 13.6 percent below a year ago, when there was a 6.6-month supply. It\u2019s particularly hard to find lower-priced houses.<span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Distressed homes\u2013foreclosures and short sales\u2013accounted for 18 percent of April sales, down from 21 percent in March and 28 percent in April 2012, according to NAR. Eleven percent of April sales were foreclosures, while 7 percent were short sales. Foreclosures sold for an average discount of 16 percent below market value in April; short sales were discounted 14 percent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FOMC Mulls QE3 Wind Down, Promises Nothing<span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve released the minutes of its April 30-May 1 meeting on Wednesday, and among other things the committee gnawed on the subject of \u201cexit strategy.\u201d An exit, that is, from the central bank\u2019s fiscal stimulation popularly known as QE3.<span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The committee noted in the minutes that \u201cthe participants&#8217; discussion touched on various aspects of the exit strategy principles\u2026 including the size and composition of the [System Open Market Account] portfolio in the longer run, the use of a range of reserve-draining tools, the approach to sales of securities [and] the eventual framework for policy implementation.\u201d How best, in other words, to get out of the thicket of asset purchases that the Fed has undertaken without disruption to the economy.<\/p>\n<p>The following sentence received a lot of coverage: \u201cA number of participants expressed willingness to adjust the flow of purchases downward as early as the June meeting if the economic information received by that time showed evidence of sufficiently strong and sustained growth; however, views differed about what evidence would be necessary and the likelihood of that outcome.\u201d<span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But the FOMC also explained that it isn\u2019t exactly in a hurry to wind down QE3: \u201cBecause normalization still appeared to be well in the future, the Committee might wish to wait and acquire additional experience to inform its plans,\u201d the minutes pointed out. That\u2019s the Fed telling policymakers and investors and employers and others not to hold their breath waiting for the end of the stimulus.<span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Bernanke Takes Congress to Task over Austerity<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Also on Wednesday, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke was before the Congress\u2019 Joint Economic Committee, scolding the federal legislative branch for its parsimonious reaction to the recession and its aftermath. \u201cMost recently, the strengthening economy has improved the budgetary outlooks of most state and local governments, leading them to reduce their pace of fiscal tightening,\u201d the chairman said.<span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the same time, though, fiscal policy at the federal level has become significantly more restrictive,\u201d he continued. Sequestration, along with the rise in the payroll tax, will \u201cexert a substantial drag on the economy this year,\u201d Bernanke concluded.<span style=\"font-size: 13px;line-height: 19px\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Wall Street took a dive in the afternoon after word of the chairman\u2019s outlook for the economy broke. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 80.41 points, or 0.52 percent, while the S&amp;P 500 was off 0.83 percent and the Nasdaq declined 1.11 percent.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Existing home sales were up 0.6 percent in April. The Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve gnawed on the subject of exit strategy from the central bank\u2019s fiscal stimulation popularly known as QE3. And Fed chairman Ben Bernanke was before the Congress\u2019 Joint Economic Committee, scolding the federal legislative branch for its frugal reaction to the recession and its aftermath. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":952,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21742],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004074651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.0 (Yoast SEO v28.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Economy Watch: Existing Home Sales Up; FOMC Mulls QE3 Wind Down; Bernanke Takes Congress to Task over Austerity - Commercial Property Executive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Economy Watch: Existing Home Sales Up; FOMC Mulls QE3 Wind Down; Bernanke Takes Congress to Task over Austerity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Existing home sales were up 0.6 percent in April. The Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve gnawed on the subject of exit strategy from the central bank\u2019s fiscal stimulation popularly known as QE3. And Fed chairman Ben Bernanke was before the Congress\u2019 Joint Economic Committee, scolding the federal legislative branch for its frugal reaction to the recession and its aftermath.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Property Executive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CPExecutive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-05-23T14:37:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-06T23:50:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anna Spiewak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Anna Spiewak\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1bbb99675c2609ea2e6792f8b25d7b76\"},\"headline\":\"Economy Watch: Existing Home Sales Up; FOMC Mulls QE3 Wind Down; Bernanke Takes Congress to Task over Austerity\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-05-23T14:37:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-06T23:50:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":608,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\\\/\",\"name\":\"Economy Watch: Existing Home Sales Up; FOMC Mulls QE3 Wind Down; Bernanke Takes Congress to Task over Austerity - Commercial Property Executive\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-05-23T14:37:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-06T23:50:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1bbb99675c2609ea2e6792f8b25d7b76\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Economy Watch: Existing Home Sales Up; FOMC Mulls QE3 Wind Down; Bernanke Takes Congress to Task over Austerity\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Commercial Property Executive\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1bbb99675c2609ea2e6792f8b25d7b76\",\"name\":\"Anna Spiewak\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ca81c045f3cbec45b685f13082ecf7d9870a1909fe3ec2d4d15b1dea4897f406?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ca81c045f3cbec45b685f13082ecf7d9870a1909fe3ec2d4d15b1dea4897f406?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ca81c045f3cbec45b685f13082ecf7d9870a1909fe3ec2d4d15b1dea4897f406?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Anna Spiewak\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/author\\\/annaspiewak\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Economy Watch: Existing Home Sales Up; FOMC Mulls QE3 Wind Down; Bernanke Takes Congress to Task over Austerity - Commercial Property Executive","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Economy Watch: Existing Home Sales Up; FOMC Mulls QE3 Wind Down; Bernanke Takes Congress to Task over Austerity","og_description":"Existing home sales were up 0.6 percent in April. The Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve gnawed on the subject of exit strategy from the central bank\u2019s fiscal stimulation popularly known as QE3. And Fed chairman Ben Bernanke was before the Congress\u2019 Joint Economic Committee, scolding the federal legislative branch for its frugal reaction to the recession and its aftermath.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\/","og_site_name":"Commercial Property Executive","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CPExecutive","article_published_time":"2013-05-23T14:37:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-12-06T23:50:39+00:00","author":"Anna Spiewak","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cpexecutive","twitter_site":"@cpexecutive","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\/"},"author":{"name":"Anna Spiewak","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/1bbb99675c2609ea2e6792f8b25d7b76"},"headline":"Economy Watch: Existing Home Sales Up; FOMC Mulls QE3 Wind Down; Bernanke Takes Congress to Task over Austerity","datePublished":"2013-05-23T14:37:28+00:00","dateModified":"2022-12-06T23:50:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\/"},"wordCount":608,"commentCount":0,"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\/","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\/","name":"Economy Watch: Existing Home Sales Up; FOMC Mulls QE3 Wind Down; Bernanke Takes Congress to Task over Austerity - Commercial Property Executive","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-05-23T14:37:28+00:00","dateModified":"2022-12-06T23:50:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/1bbb99675c2609ea2e6792f8b25d7b76"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-existing-home-sales-up-fomc-mulls-qe3-wind-down-bernanke-takes-congress-to-task-over-austerity\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Economy Watch: Existing Home Sales Up; FOMC Mulls QE3 Wind Down; Bernanke Takes Congress to Task over Austerity"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/","name":"Commercial Property Executive","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/1bbb99675c2609ea2e6792f8b25d7b76","name":"Anna Spiewak","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca81c045f3cbec45b685f13082ecf7d9870a1909fe3ec2d4d15b1dea4897f406?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca81c045f3cbec45b685f13082ecf7d9870a1909fe3ec2d4d15b1dea4897f406?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca81c045f3cbec45b685f13082ecf7d9870a1909fe3ec2d4d15b1dea4897f406?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Anna Spiewak"},"url":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/author\/annaspiewak\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004074651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/952"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1004074651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004074651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1004629898,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004074651\/revisions\/1004629898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1004074651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1004074651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1004074651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}