Tag: economy

Rearview Mirror

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. […]

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 […]

Februarys weather kept U.S. housing starts low, at a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 907,000, down 2,000 from January. Heavy permit applications, however, suggested the numbers would increase again once the weather warmed.

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 […]