Durable goods hit a record in August, up 1.8% from July to $263.5 billion. Durable goods are product meant to last three years or more. The estimate was for a 0.6% increase. The big increase indicates that businesses are investing for the future.

Home prices continued to increase at record rates in July. It was the fourth straight month of record increases. The S& P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index was up 19.7% in the year that ended in July, up from an 18.7% annual rate in June. July marked the highest annual growth rate since the index began in 1987.

But the pace of increases might be slowing. The Conference Board’s consumer-confidence index fell to 109.3 in September from 115.2 in August and the share of respondents planning to buy a house in the next six months fell for the third month in a row.