Economy/Ecommerce

According to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices the 10-city and 20-city composite indexes were up 10.8 percent year-over-year in April.

Total existing U.S. home sales rose 4.9 percent to an annualized rate of 4.89 million units in May from an upwardly revised 4.66 million units in April, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 20 states had unemployment rate decreases in May compared with April, 16 states suffered increases and 14 states and the District of Columbia experienced no change.

Boston Consulting Group, in its Global Wealth 2014 report, said that the total number of millionaire households reached 16.3 million worldwide in 2013, up strongly from 13.7 million in 2012 and representing 1.1 percent of all households globally (an almost literal 1 percent).

Much of the recent economic news came from the Federal Reserve, especially the fact that the Federal Open Market Committee has decided to continue tapering its stimulus of the economy.

New U.S. housing starts were just over an annualized rate of 1 million units in May—1.001 million units, to be exact—the Census Bureau reported on Tuesday. That’s a 6.5 percent drop compared with the revised April estimate of 1.071 million units, but it’s 9.4 percent above the May 2013 rate.

Despite sluggish sales in recent months, builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes rose four points in June to reach 49 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index.

Last week the World Bank, in its Global Economic Prospects, lowered its forecast for world economic growth in 2014