Help-Wanted Advertising Index Inches Up
The Conference Board Help-Wanted Advertising Index — a key measure of job offerings in major newspapers across America — inched up one point in December. The Index now stands at 22. It was 33 one year ago.
The Conference Board is the global business research and membership organization.
In the last three months, help-wanted advertising declined in eight of the nine U.S. regions. Steepest declines occurred in the Pacific (-18.9%) and South Atlantic (-16.3%) regions. The East North Central region (2.5%) showed a modest increase.
Average Worker Still Can’t Afford To Buy A House
New Study from the Center for Housing Policy Details Changes in Homeownership and Rental Affordability for the Highest-Growth Occupations in More Than 200 U.S. Metro Areas
Washington, DC (January 29, 2007) – Homeownership has become slightly more affordable during the current housing downturn, but still remains far out of reach for the majority of workers nationwide, according to Paycheck to Paycheck: Wages and the Cost of Housing in America. This new study compares housing costs in more than 200 U.S. metropolitan areas with the wages earned by workers in 60 occupations and was released today by the Center for Housing Policy, the research affiliate of the National Housing Conference (NHC). Specifically, when looking at the five highest-growth occupations – registered nurses, retail salespersons, customer service representatives, food preparation workers and office clerks (in order of growth) – based on median annual income, homeownership is unaffordable for all five occupations in the majority of the 201 metro areas studied.
Refinancing Apps Increase, Purchase Apps Decrease In Latest MBA Weekly Survey
WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 30, 2008) — The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 25, 2008. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 1054.9, an increase of 7.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 981.5 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 10.5 percent compared with the previous week and was up 70.7 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.
Record Declines in Home Prices Continue in November
New York, January 29, 2008 – Data through November 2007, released today by Standard & Poor’s for its S&P/Case-Shiller® Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, show broadbased declines in the prices of existing single family homes across the United States, marking the 11th consecutive month of negative annual returns and a full two years of decelerating returns.
High Percentage Entering Foreclosure With Negative Equity
| County/State | Percent entering foreclosure with negative equity: |
| Wayne County, Mich. | 38.6% |
| Clark County, Nev. | 22.9% |
| Maricopa County, Ariz. | 15.9% |
| Riverside County, Calif. | 18.7% |
| Los Angeles County, Calif. | 10% |
| Cook County, Ill. | 12.8% |
| Broward County, Fla. | 17.79% |
| Sacramento County, Calif. | 26.7% |
| Miami-Dade County, Fla. | 11.6% |
| San Bernardino County, Calif. | 18% |
| San Diego County, Calif. | 16% |
| Macomb County, Mich. | 37.9% |
| San Joaquin County, Calif. | 31.5% |
| Lee County, Mich. | 36.5% |
5 Biggest U.S. Mortgage Lenders
DALLAS — (Jan. 28, 2008) Among the five biggest U.S. mortgage lenders last year, three saw their originations fall from the previous year, according to a preliminary analysis of earnings data by http://www.MortgageDaily.com.
Countrywide Financial Corp. maintained its standing as the No. 1 residential lender, with a reported $408.2 billion in residential production during 2007. But the mortgage behemoth saw a decline from 2006, when it reported $462.5 billion in volume.
A pending merger between California-based Countrywide and North Carolina-based Bank of America Corp. will create a company that is likely to originate in the neighborhood of between $425 billion and $475 billion a year — far more than any competitor.