Housing starts fall 7% but permits pick up the slack in

  • April 18, 2017
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  • realestatelife

Builders broke ground on fewer homes in March, but ramped up applications for permits, as the housing recovery continued to grind forward in fits and starts. Housing starts fell 6.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.22 million, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. That was 9.2% higher than during the same period a year

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Fed’s George says she’s not sure how markets will react to balance sheet reduction

  • April 18, 2017
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  • realestatelife

Kansas City Fed President Esther George on Tuesday said she supports the continuation of the normalization of interest rates, even as she acknowledges it’s unclear how markets will react to the Fed beginning to reduce its $4.5 trillion balance sheet. “It is difficult to know with a high degree of confidence just how the economy

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Treasury yields slide on lingering geopolitical concerns

  • April 18, 2017
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  • realestatelife

Treasury prices rallied on Tuesday, pushing yields lower, as geopolitical concerns draw money flows into U.S. government bonds. Yields for 10-year Treasury notes slipped 3.8 basis points to 2.210% in early Tuesday trading, heading back toward the November lows reached on Monday.

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Consumer confidence soars in March to best reading in 16 years

  • March 28, 2017
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The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index leapt to 125.6 in March from 116.1 in February, coming in well ahead of the consensus of 114.1.

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Fed’s Evans says he supports ‘one or two’ more interest-rate hikes this year

  • March 29, 2017
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  • realestatelife

The fundamentals of the U.S. economy are good and call for another one or two increases in short-term interest rates this year, said Chicago Fed President Charles Evans on Wednesday. Over the next few years, economic growth should average a little above potential, which is not even as high as 2%, Evans said in a

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Pending home sales jump in February

  • March 29, 2017
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  • realestatelife

Contract signings for home sales boomed in February to the second-highest level in a decade, a trade group said Wednesday. Pending home sales rose 5.5% in February after falling 2.8% in January, the National Association of Realtors reported. That’s the highest level in close to a year

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Treasurys pare losses after U.K. formally begins Brexit process

  • March 29, 2017
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  • realestatelife

Treasury prices gained some ground on Wednesday after U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May began the Article 50 process, which formally begins the process of taking the country out of the European Union. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped 2.6 basis points to 2.398%. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond fell 2.3 basis

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U.S. stock futures dip as focus on Fed and data continues

  • March 30, 2017
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  • realestatelife

Federal Reserve officials, including Chicago Fed President Charles Evans and his Boston counterpart, Eric Rosengren are scheduled to speak at separate events and may comment on the central bank’s interest rate outlook. Wall Street stock futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Thursday as investors continued to be on watch for more signals on

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U.S. economy shows only modest signs of inflation pressures: Fed

  • April 19, 2017
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  • realestatelife

The U.S. economy expanded at a modest-to-moderate pace between mid-February and the end of March, but inflation pressures remained in check despite more difficulties in attracting and retaining workers. There is still debate within the Fed about just how rapid and sustained the pickup in inflation will be given that it has struggled to reach

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Jobless claims dip 3,000 to 258,000 in late March

  • March 30, 2017
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  • realestatelife

The number of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits in late March dropped by 3,000 to 258,000, keeping new claims near the lowest level in decades. Economists polled had expected initial jobless claims to total 247,000 in the seven days stretching from March 19 to March 25.

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