Do Municipal Bonds Believe the Tax Reform Hype? The bond market is a highly opinionated market. The yields and total return of bond markets reflect investors' sentiments on not only today's prevailing interest rates, but all income over the lifetime of a given type and maturity of bond. For example, a 10 year Treasury Bond's [...]
Portland Real Estate Index Increases Again Portland Real Estate had its largest month-over-month increase of 2017 in March. The Portland Case Shiller housing price index jumped 1.03% from February to March, beating the national average rate of increase. This new data from Standard & Poor's is interesting, given local media reports that apartment rental prices [...]
Oregon, Idaho, Washington Lead US Average in Recent Economic Report Pacific Northwest Relatively Strong in the BLS Coincident Economic Activity Index for January, 2017The Index Every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes an index of Coincident Economic Activity for all 50 states. This coincident index is produced a number of days after the [...]
US March Jobs Grew by 98,000 Though the economy added March jobs, it did so at half the expected rate of 180,000The Index The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports on job growth monthly. It's a widely watched statistic, as it is considered to predict broader economic growth and gauge the health of the American [...]
US Economy Still Expanding According to New Data The ISM Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI) showed strong numbers for MarchThe Index The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) publishes an influential report called the Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI) monthly. The US PMI is used by traders, asset managers, and manufacturing industry executives as a barometer of current business conditions. [...]
Portland's Real Estate Market Increases in December of 2016 Portland Real Estate ended on a high note in 2016 according to fresh dataThe Index The Case-Shiller Index is the product of researchers Karl Case and Robert Shiller. The data in the index is maintained by Standard and Poor's (aka "S&P"), calculated from are repeat-sales house prices [...]
