Jonell Marty, a fifth-grade teacher in the Minneapolis suburb of Apple Valley, received $60 more in her paycheck on February 5, her first to incorporate the Trump tax cuts. Marty, who has taught for more than three decades, makes $86,000 a year. She is putting the extra $1,440 per year […]
Tag: economy
Auto Sales Keep Retail Economy in Reverse
Soft auto sales dragged down overall retail sales in February and consumers did not spend enough to pick up the slack. Retail sales decreased by one-tenth of a percent from January, according to Commerce Department figures released Wednesday, to a seasonally adjusted $447.31 billion. January retail sales were also one-tenth […]
Unemployment Rate Hits Lowest Level In A Decade
Job growth rebounded this month after a significant dip in March, easing fears that the economy may be weakening, and the unemployment rate remained steady at its lowest level in a decade. Hiring picked up sharply in April with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting Friday morning that the U.S. […]
Stagnant wages and job insecurity for Millennials drags homeownership rate to 19-year low
Stevie-Lynn Pickel and her fiancé, Adonis Smith, put money into a joint savings account whenever they can. The couple has a two-year plan: save up $35,000 for a down payment on a three-bedroom house, move out of the condominium they’re renting in Waterbury, Connecticut and then get married. “We want […]
Housing starts down again in January
U.S. homebuilders started construction on fewer projects in January than in December, continuing a six-year, saw-tooth pattern of ups and downs in housing starts. January housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1.065 million units, 2 percent below the downwardly revised December estimate of 1.087 million. Economists […]
March Housing Starts Will Rise With the Mercury
It’ll be a spring thaw: Housing starts likely jumped as soon as the weather warmed up in March, even as concerns remain about the cost of land and labor. Starts will rise to a seasonally adjusted annualized pace of 970,000 when the Census releases its home-construction report tomorrow morning, according […]
Housing Recovery Masks Dangers for Young
Galen Eckenroth has what he knows is an uncommon pastime for someone his age: He’s looking to invest in real estate. Yet no matter how much he looked last year, the 26-year-old from San Diego just wasn’t able to buy. He says that in a city where buyers were willing […]
February Cold Keep Housing Starts Flat
Weather held U.S. housing starts flat in February, even as the sector showed signs it would grow in spring. Starts dropped to a seasonally adjusted, annualized pace of 907,000 in February, a mere 0.2 percent below January’s revised estimate of 909,000, according to data released jointly on March 18 by […]
Student debt endangers the American Dream
Paul Buehler’s $60,000 in debt weighs heavy on him. As a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Arizona the 31-year-old has spent the last eight years relying on student loans. His debt will become due when he finishes in December. Then his salary will just pay his student […]
Home Prices Fly High
Housing prices posted their largest monthly gain in more than five years in a sign of an accelerating market that could provide a key boost to the economy. The widely watched Case Shiller index rose 2.5% in April, the largest one-month gain in history. Prices are up 12.1% from a […]