þA big drop in business spending on machinery and equipment helped pushed orders for long-lasting manufacturing goods down in January by the largest amount in three years. þþMeanwhile, home prices fell in December for a fourth-consecutive month in most major American cities, as modest sales gains in the depressed housing market have yet to lift prices. þþThe Commerce Department said orders for durable goods — products that are expected to last at least three years — fell 4 percent in January compared with the month before. þþSo-called core capital goods, which are viewed as a good measure of business investment plans, fell 4.5 percent, the biggest drop in a year. Demand for these goods hit an all-time high in December as companies rushed to take advantage of expiring tax breaks on purchases of capital goods. þþIn January, overall orders totaled $206.1 billion. Orders are still 16 percent below their peak hit in December 2007. þþOn the home price front, the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index showed that prices dropped in December from November in 18 of the 20 cities tracked. The steepest declines were in Atlanta, Chicago and Detroit. Miami and Phoenix were the only cities to show an increase. þþThe declines partly reflected the typical slowdown that comes in the fall and winter. þþStill, prices fell in 19 of the 20 cities in December compared with the same month in 2010. Only Detroit posted a year-over-year increase. Prices in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Seattle and Tampa dropped to their lowest points since the housing crisis began. þþ“The pickup in the economy has simply not been strong enough to keep home prices stabilized,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the S.&P.'s index committee. “If anything, it looks like we might have re-entered a period of decline as we begin 2012.” þþPrices have fallen 34 percent nationwide since the housing bust, back to 2002 levels. A gauge of quarterly national prices, which covers 70 percent of homes, fell to its lowest point on records dating back to 1987. þþThe Case-Shiller monthly index covers half of all American homes. It measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The December data is the latest available. þþþþþþþþþþþ
Source: NY Times
