Finance Globe

Sales of existing homes picked up the pace again in May, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). May's increase - spurred by more affordable home prices, historically low interest rates, and the $8000 first-time homebuyer tax credit - was the first back-to-back monthly increase since September 2005.Sales of single-family homes rose 1.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.25 million in May from a pace of 4.17 million in...

The Treasury Department announced on Monday that $268 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds will be released to create jobs and provide low-income families with affordable housing units in Indiana, Missouri, Tennessee, and Washington D.C. "Today's announcement of housing funds demonstrates how President Obama's Recovery Act is putting our nation on the path to economic stability, one community at a time," said Treasury Deputy Secretary Neal Wolin. "This initiative will help spur construction and...

The unemployment rate continued to climb in nearly all states and regions for May, according to a report released today by the government. The national unemployment rate rose from 8.9% in April to 9.4% in May, and is now 3.9% higher than it was a year ago.Vermont was the only state to show no change in the unemployment rate of 7.3% from April to May, and Nebraska was the only state to actually report a decrease...

A payment processor that took millions of dollars - without authorization - from consumers' bank accounts has been ordered by a federal court to pay nearly $1.8 million in consumer redress and to end the illegal practice, according to a statement released today by the Federal Trade Commission.The FTC filed a complaint on Nevada-based InterBill LTD. and its owner Thomas Wells in 2006 for acting on behalf of a fake company known as "Pharmacycards.com". In 2004...

Ten of the nation's leading banks won approval from the U.S. Treasury to repay about $68 billion in TARP funds, the government said Tuesday. "These repayments are an encouraging sign of financial repair, but we still have work to do," said Secretary Tim Geithner.Combined with repayments received to date from other institutions, Treasury will have received approximately $70 billion in repayments from Capital Purchase Program (CPP) participants. More than 600 banks across the country have participated...

The unemployment rate rose to 9.4% in May from 8.9% in April, according to a report released today by the Department of Labor.The pace of job cuts is slowing and the month of May lost 345,000 jobs - about half as many jobs as in each of the previous six months. Still, the job market remains weak and the unemployment rate is currently at a 26-year high. Since the start of the recession in December 2007,...

Delinquencies in commercial and multi-family residential mortgages continued to rise during the first quarter of 2009 due to the weak economy and an ongoing credit crunch, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).Jamie Woodwell, Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Research at the Mortgage Bankers Association, said, “Delinquency rates on commercial and multifamily mortgages held by banks and thrifts, by Fannie Mae and in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) are all...

Pending home sales rose for the third month in a row in April, boosted by low interest rates, affordable home prices, and the $8000 first-time homebuyer's credit.According to a report released today by the National Association of Realtors, the Pending Homes Sales Index rose 6.7% to 90.3 from 84.6 in March. The index is 3.2% higher than it was a year ago when it was 87.5.The Pending Home Sales Index is a leading indicator for the...

The volume of mortgage applications rose slightly last week, according to a report released Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association.Last week's mortgage loan application volume, as measured by the Market Composite Index, was 915.9, up 2.3% from 895.6 the previous week, seasonally adjusted. On an unadjusted basis, the index increased 2% compared with the previous week and increased by 42% compared with the same week from last year.The Refinance Index increased by 4.5% to 4794.4 from...

Continuing job losses remain severe, according to a report release by the Labor Department on Thursday. While the number of initial jobless claims dipped slightly last week, this is mostly because it is being compared with the prior week in which Chrysler layoffs bumped that week's number much higher.The advance number for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims was 631,000 for the week ending May 16 - a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's revised figure...