by Calculated Risk on 4/18/2015 10:56:00 AM

The key economic reports this week are March new home sales on Thursday and existing home sales on Wednesday.

----- Monday, April 20th -----
8:30 AM ET: Chicago Fed National Activity Index for March. This is a composite index of other data.

----- Tuesday, April 21st -----
10:00 AM: Regional and State Employment and Unemployment (Monthly), March 2015

----- Wednesday, April 22nd -----
7:00 AM: The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.

9:00 AM: FHFA House Price Index for February 2015. This was originally a GSE only repeat sales, however there is also an expanded index.

10:00 AM: Existing Home Sales for March from the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

The consensus is for sales of 5.03 million on seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) basis. Sales in February were at a 4.88 million SAAR. Economist Tom Lawler estimates the NAR will report sales of 5.18 million SAAR.

A key will be the reported year-over-year increase in inventory of homes for sale.

During the day: The AIA's Architecture Billings Index for March (a leading indicator for commercial real estate).

----- Thursday, April 23rd -----
8:30 AM: The initial weekly unemployment claims report will be released. The consensus is for claims to decrease to 290 thousand from 294 thousand.

10:00 AM: New Home Sales for March from the Census Bureau.

This graph shows New Home Sales since 1963. The dashed line is the February sales rate.

The consensus is for a decrease in sales to 510 thousand Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) in March from 539 thousand in February.

----- Friday, April 24th -----
8:30 AM: Durable Goods Orders for February from the Census Bureau. The consensus is for a 0.6% increase in durable goods orders.