First-time home buyers have returned to the housing market and those who can afford a home are finding success after years of setbacks. The share of buyers purchasing a home for the first time has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. First-time buyers now represent 45% of all buyers, up from 37% of buyers surveyed last year, according to Zillow's 2022 Consumer Housing Trends … [More]

Typical for this time of year, September home sales declined 9.7% from August across the report's 53 metro areas. That led to inventory climbing to two months' supply for the first time in nearly two years – an encouraging sign of a more balanced market to come. September's Median Sales Price of $400,000 was 6.1% lower than the year-high of $426,100 in June. … [More]

U.S. hotel leisure travel revenue is projected to end 2022 14% above 2019 levels, while hotel business travel revenue is expected to come within 1% of 2019 levels, according to a new analysis released today by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) and Kalibri Labs. The projections are not adjusted for inflation, and real hotel revenue recovery will likely take … [More]

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 0.4 percent in September on a seasonally adjusted basis after rising 0.1 percent in August, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 8.2 percent before seasonal adjustment. Increases in the shelter, food, and medical care indexes were the largest … [More]

NFIB’s Small Business Optimism Index rose 0.3 points in September to 92.1, making the ninth consecutive month below the 48-year average of 98. Thirty percent of owners reported that inflation was their single most important problem in operating their business. “Inflation and worker shortages continue to be the hardest challenges facing small business owners,” said … [More]

Small business owners reporting labor quality as their top business operating problem remains elevated at 22% in September, according to NFIB’s monthly jobs report. Labor cost reported as the single most important problem to business owners was unchanged at 10%. “The worker shortage remains challenging for many small business owners nationwide,” said NFIB Chief … [More]

GREATER PHOENIX CHAMBER RELEASES Q2 ARIZONA BUSINESS INDEX The Greater Phoenix Chamber recently released the Q2 Arizona Business Index™ (ABI™), powered by OH Predictive Insights (OHPI). The study measures and interprets the health of the Arizona economy from the perspective of the Arizona consumer. "The news is as we expected with inflation continuing an upward trend in … [More]

CoreLogic, a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, today released the CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI™) and HPI Forecast™ for August 2022. Although U.S. home prices continued their 127-month run of consecutive annual gains in August, they slowed for the fourth straight month to 13.5%. That’s the lowest year-over-year … [More]