On August 27, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that real gross domestic product increased at an annual rate of 1.6 percent in the second quarter of 2010, a decrease of 0.8 percent from the initial estimate of 2.4 percent, issued earlier this month. It is also a decrease of 2.1 percent from the 3.7 percent annualized increase seen in the first quarter of 2010. The deceleration in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected a sharp acceleration in imports and a sharp deceleration in private inventory investment that were partly offset by an upturn in residential fixed investment, an acceleration in nonresidential fixed investment, an upturn in state and local government spending, and an acceleration in federal government spending. Analysts did note that while there was an increase in spending, it was on imports and not domestically produced items. Additionally, they also noted that recent poor economic news could result in third quarter GDP growth rate of below 1 percent.

 

On August 25, the Census Bureau reported that sales of new single-family houses in July were 276,000, which is 12.4 percent below the revised June rate of 315,000 and is 32.4 percent below the July 2009 estimate of 408,000. Additionally, the median sales price of new houses sold in July 2010 was $204,000; the average sales price was $235,300. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of July was 210,000, which represents a supply of 9.1 months at the current sales rate.

 

Link: Census Bureau Press Release

 

New orders for manufactured durable goods in July increased $0.6 billion or 0.3 percent to $193.0 billion. This increase followed two consecutive monthly decreases. However, orders for core durable goods, which excludes transportation, decreased 3.8 percent. Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft fell 8 percent, which is significantly below the 20 percent annual growth rate during the first half of 2010.