CPI and Foreclosure Filings Higher

CPI rose 0.8 percent in July, following a 1.1 percent jump in June.  Core CPI (ex-food and energy) was up 0.3 percent.  The headline year-over-year CPI was 5.6 percent, a particularly difficult number for the market and economists to swallow.  However, with commodity prices declining significantly in the past month, the consensus among economists is that this is the peak in CPI.  Unless, of course, commodity prices head back up...

Meanwhile in deflationary news, US foreclosure filings were up 55% from the previous year.  Total foreclosure filings rose 8 percent from the previous month to 272,171 while bank seizures rose 184 percent to 77,295.  Through July 775,244 properties were owned by banks, compared with 445,000 for all of 2007.  Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate, followed by California and Florida.  Stockton, California no longer topped the list of the metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates.  That honor now goes to Cape Coral Fort Myers, Florida.  Merced, Stockton, Modesto and Las Vegas round out the top five.  With prices of all goods heading higher, at least you can still buy a house for a song in a few key parts of the country.