Wilson County Home Equity Monitor

Flooding is happening all over Wilson County. Comment your pictures and videos below!
Video courtesy of Brian Mintel from Gladeville. Thank you for sharing.

**The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) small-business optimism index fell 3.2 points in January to a seasonally adjusted reading of 101.2, the lowest reading in over two years.
**Job openings reached 7.34 million in December, the highest level since 2000. The figure also exceeds the 6.5 million Americans who were classified as unemployed, showing there are more open positions than workers available. The quit rate was unchanged at 2.6%.
**The weekly mortgage application survey declined for the week ending 2/8. New purchase application submissions were down 6.0% and refinance application submission were down 0.1% for a composite decrease of 3.7%.
**The consumer price index was unchanged month-over-month but up 1.6% from January 2018. Core CPI, excluding more volatile food and energy costs, was up 0.2% month-over-month and 2.2% year-over-year.
**For the week ending 2/9, initial claims increased to a level of 239,000 and continuing claims increased to 1.77 million. Though both figures are up, the levels remain historically low.
**The December retail sales report was delayed due to the government shutdown and released this week. Retail sales declined 1.2% month-over-month. Excluding auto sales, the figure was down 1.8% month-over-month, and excluding gas and auto sales it was down 1.4% month-over-month.