First Day of Spring

Spring is here, but it must be hiding on the other side of the mountain range. The snow is melting and you can almost see the entire parking lot. Weatherman Dave says we're in for alot of snow these next few days. I think he watches the Denver station, as his last 5 or 6 predictions have been wrong.

Alpenglo has been a beehive of busy this last week with phone calls and showings. The "season" is gearing up.

Gloria Good at First Horizon emails a wonderful market report weekly and I have taken the liberty of quoting from it for all of the economists out there:

BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH! Or so said a fortune teller to Julius Caesar, prior to his assassination on March 15th, which makes whatever the "Ides" are sound pretty ominous. But here's a translation: the word "Ides" comes from a Latin word that means to divide, and so the "Ides of March" simply refers to March 15th. So now that we've gained an interesting fact to bring to our next social outing...let's do some translating of the events last week, and how they helped home loan rates improve by about .125%.
First, Retail Sales numbers for February were weak. Where was the love? The weakness appeared to be spread across most types of retail outlets, including autos, gasoline, furniture, and clothing. Remembering that weak economic news tends to benefit Bond pricing and home loan rates, this helped home loan rates improve.
Next, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is a widely watched measure of inflation, came in slightly lower than expectations. It appears that price inflation at the consumer level during the month of February was relatively mild, with price declines in energy, food, and clothing offsetting higher prices in air fares, housing, and medical care. Controlled inflation is good news for Bonds, so this also helped home loan rates improve.
On the housing front, some mixed news. New construction slowed down a bit in February...but were better numbers than what the experts were anticipating. And January's Housing Starts number was revised higher, to a 12-year high! So...where again is that housing bubble? During 2006, it is likely that the pace of appreciation will cool – particularly in states where employment is weak. Yet although the media still loves to beat the drum of fear surrounding a housing bubble, the data just doesn't back it up.

Colt Ferguson (son of Allen & Caroline Ferguson, grandson of Allen & Mary Rutherford Ferguson, and brother of Caleb Ferguson) just turned 4 on Saturday. Happy Birthday Colt!

Happy Spring to All

Maggie Palmer