Summary List Placement Millions of Americans are still recovering from the financial turmoil of the pandemic. As part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, some student loan borrowers were granted forbearance — a pause on monthly payments. The relief, however, is coming to an end soon: Borrowers must restart making payments […]
Summary List Placement It’s a common refrain right now: No one wants to work. It’s a twist in the story of a not-quite-post-pandemic economy that left millions of people unemployed, as understaffed businesses struggle to hire and workers quit en-masse. But, as always, the economy is complex, and so are the myriad of people who […]
Mortgage applications decreased 4% for the week ending July 16, just one week after applications jumped 16% on the strength of falling mortgage rates. The 10-year Treasury yield dropped sharply last week, in part due to investors becoming more concerned about the spread of COVID variants and their impact on global economic growth, according to […]
Summary List Placement Sen. Elizabeth Warren took a jab at Jeff Bezos after the world’s richest man returned to Earth from his suborbital space trip with Blue Origin. Bezos addressed a crowd on Tuesday while donning a cowboy hat, saying he wanted to “thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid […]
Summary List Placement Following the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) announcing two weeks ago it would not extend its federal contract to service student loans, another student loan company followed suit on Monday, bringing the total number of borrowers who will have to switch servicers to nearly 10 million. Granite State Management and Resources […]
Summary List Placement Giving every student the option to eat lunch for free is the latest way California is choosing to make use of its significant budget surplus. In the beginning of July, California Gov. Gavin Newsom launched the Universal School Meals Program, which invests $54 million to give 6.2 million public school students in […]
Mortgage applications for new home purchases in June decreased 3% from May and 23.8% year over year, suggesting a slowdown in the housing market, according to a recent report from the Mortgage Bankers Association. New single-family home sales were reported at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 704,000 units in June, a decrease of 5% […]
Summary List Placement If you’ve been priced out of buying a home, there aren’t many places to hide. The red-hot rental market is getting increasingly expensive as well. Rents for houses skyrocketed across the US in May, according to property data firm CoreLogic. According to the company’s latest Single-Family Rent Index release Tuesday, single-family house […]
Summary List Placement The owner of Brady’s Restaurant in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, says supply shortages have forced it to cut its opening hours. “Our food supply chains have gotten real sketchy,” owner Jennie Mitchell told Insider. The restaurant now closes an hour early every day, and closes completely for an extra day each week, too, […]
Summary List Placement An Arizona restaurant owner has scrapped some menu items that are frustrating to prepare to stop his staff from leaving during the US labor shortage. Skyler Reeves, owner of Vivili Hospitality Group, which runs restaurants in Prescott, Arizona, told the Financial Times that he’d made several changes to his business to try […]
Summary List Placement The National Bureau of Economic Research wrote in an announcement on July 19 that the pandemic recession only lasted two months, from February 2020 to April 2020. That makes this the shortest recession in US history. NBER added in its announcement that the previous shortest recession, between January 1980 and July 1980, […]
For the 20th straight week, servicers’ forbearance portfolio volume dropped — this time a staggering 26 basis points, to 3.50% in the period ending July 11, per a survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association. According to MBA’s estimate, 1.75 million homeowners are in forbearance plans. The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased eight basis points to 1.83% — after […]
Summary List Placement On May 18, a pro-Trump think tank called the Claremont Institute hosted a conference at a Ritz Carlton not far from the Pentagon. It featured talks by a small but influential faction of American conservatives including former Trump national-security advisor Michael Anton, Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, and “Hillbilly Elegy” author and […]
Blend Labs‘ life as a public company is off to a promising start. Late last week, Blend sold 20 million shares of Class A stock at $18 apiece, raising $360 million. Shares closed trading at $20.90, giving Blend a valuation of around $4.6 billion. Blend CEO Nima Ghamsari will control 100% of Class B shares, […]
Summary List Placement The White House just made it official: there’s a problem in the housing sector. Maybe it’s even a crisis. On Friday, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, and Council of Economic Advisers Chair Cecilia Rouse held a virtual event […]
Summary List Placement Even the people who want to sell you a house think it’s too expensive. The severe housing shortage in the US — caused by an underinvestment in housing construction — has led to spiking rent and home prices, and an “affordability crisis.” That’s the official opinion of the organization that represents 1.3 […]
Summary List Placement Teachers in South Carolina are being handed $2,500 “thank you” bonuses as schools struggle to retain staff after a tumultuous 18 months. Several states are using federal stimulus funds to pay teachers morale-boosting one-time bonuses to thank them for their work during the pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported. South Carolina’s Marlboro […]
Summary List Placement It’s only been seven months into the year and markets have already witnessed a multitude of once-in-a-decade events. Retail traders flocked to no-fee brokerage apps and coordinated short squeezes against well-known hedge funds, while the US stock market has continually reached new all-time highs. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ are up 15% […]
Summary List Placement June’s jobs report shows the economy is recovering, but the nation is still down 7.5 million jobs from over a year ago when the unemployment rate was less than 4%. Today, we are not near that number, and more than 42% of those unemployed have been that way for more than six […]
Summary List Placement If you’ve spent any time thinking about post-pandemic fashion, you may know that the social media skirmishes over skinny jeans, side parts, cargo shorts, and Crocs, all add up to one thing: nothing is universally cool anymore. The decline of “cool,” as mapped out by Vox’s Safy-Hallan Farah, is another economic trend […]
Summary List Placement Many states that are have almost recovered to pre-pandemic employment levels are led by GOP-governors that have recently cut federal unemployment benefits. New monthly data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that several states that have cut the extra $300 weekly federal unemployment benefits are closer to pre-pandemic employment relative to […]
Summary List Placement Former Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams on Saturday said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) should extend its mask requirements, amid the rise of COVID-19 variants. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky in late June said fully vaccinated Americans don’t need masks in most public places. Adams on Saturday said officials […]
Summary List Placement Indiana on Friday resumed paying pandemic unemployment benefits, including the weekly $300 enhanced federal supplement, after the state Court of Appeals denied the state’s attempt to continue halting the disbursements, according to The Indianapolis Star. Since the programs restarted, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development has already paid 25,000 people, with over […]
Summary List Placement President Biden’s massive infrastructure spending plan could widen up even more opportunities for pension funds — who are already pumping money into an asset class they’ve long seen as an attractive area of investment. Since June, Biden and a group of senators have been working on legislation that could infuse $1.2 trillion […]
Summary List Placement Not too long ago, you could pick up a worn but decent used car for something like $5,000 and hit the road. Those days may be long gone. Used-car prices have surged to never-before-seen highs during the pandemic, and the inflated prices may be here to stay for at least the next […]
Summary List Placement Some restaurants are cutting down their opening hours or temporarily closing for days on end because they simply can’t find enough workers to serve diners, amid the huge labor shortage hitting the hospitality industry. One even shut down for a day after rude diners swore at staff and made them cry. Central […]
The second big mortgage joint venture announcement this week is a meeting of the Glenns. Glenn Sanford’s eXp World Holdings announced Thursday a mortgage joint venture with Glenn Stearns’s Kind Lending, called Success Lending. The declaration comes 48 hours after Compass and Guaranteed Rate told of a definitive agreement to begin their own mortgage joint […]
Real estate platform OJO Labs is expanding into Canada, the company announced this week. Canadian customers can now work directly with the OJO concierge team to connect with local agents and mortgage professionals from Royal Bank of Canada, said Natalka Falcomer, who was named president of OJO Home Canada. “OJO Labs provides intuitive, personalized consumer […]
As Chief Operating Officer at First Guaranty Mortgage Corp, Sarah Gonzalez has modernized the FGMC brand, recruited top talent and implemented operational efficiencies that significantly reduce the cost per loan across all production channels. During her third year at FGMC, Gonzalez was recognized by HousingWire as a 2020 Vanguard. The HW Vanguard awards program recognizes C-level […]
Summary List Placement The pandemic has upended the market for new and used cars, sending prices skyrocketing and inventories dwindling. A buying frenzy — coupled with soaring prices and a historically low supply of vehicles — has turned car salespeople into enemies, one dealership employee told Bloomberg. “It’s really cutthroat,” Jared Luner, a salesman at […]
Summary List Placement It’s not just you – some grocery products are getting smaller. Ingredients and manufacturing are getting more expensive thanks to inflation, and if they can’t cut costs, companies have two main choices – hiking up prices or making their products smaller. Many of these size changes are subtle, like making candy bars […]
Summary List Placement In the first-of-its-kind state initiative, California just approved a program to distribute monthly checks to its residents, marking a step toward a universal basic income in the country. On Thursday, California’s state legislature unanimously passed a $35 million guaranteed income program funded by taxpayer dollars, in which residents can receive up to […]
Summary List Placement After President Joe Biden reached an agreement with a bipartisan group of senators on an infrastructure plan, many Democrats criticized how the deal cut out many care-economy measures, like eldercare and affordable housing. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York doubled down on those criticisms on Thursday, promising that progressives will “tank” the […]
Summary List Placement Americans spent $621.3 billion at retail stores and restaurants last month, according to the Census Bureau. That’s up 0.6% from the Bureau’s revised estimate of $617.9 billion in May. Economists expected a 0.4% decline over the month, according to Bloomberg. The US economy is mainly a consumer economy, with personal consumption amounting […]
Summary List Placement American Airlines is canceling extended voluntary leave for about 3,300 of its flight attendants as it prepares for a surge in travel demand, which will last beyond the summer. Returning cabin crews will restart flights in November and December, and two-thirds will need to be retrained, the airline told employees in a […]
The low mortgage rates that propelled the housing market throughout the COVID-19 pandemic will rise later in the year, but they’ll do so gradually, Freddie Mac said Thursday in its quarterly outlook. That will give more homeowners a final opportunity to refinance their mortgages. The gradual rate climb has led Freddie’s economists to increase their […]
Summary List Placement While the economy is showing promising signs of recovery, adding 850,000 payrolls in June, inflation is also on the rise, concerning some economists and executives. To balance it out, CEOs are saying they will have to raise prices on their goods. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly Consumer Price Index release showed […]
Mortgage credit availability dipped 8.5% in June to 118.8 — indicating that lending standards are tightening, per the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Mortgage Credit Availability Index. It’s the lowest MCAI level — which uses 100 as a benchmark — since September of 2020, and ends more than six months of increasing credit supply, according to Joel […]
Summary List Placement The country is reopening and the economy is recovering from the pandemic, and while COVID-19 cases are down, prices for goods and services are on the rise. President Joe Biden’s administration says this phenomenon, known as inflation, is not a cause for concern, but CEOs of major companies are warning that they’ll […]
Online mortgage marketplace Morty announced the close of a $25 million Series B financing round, pushing the total company valuation to $150 million. Morty’s marketplace has processed more than $500 million in loans in the past 12 months, and saw revenue grow 800% year over year. The company is currently licensed in 36 states and Washington D.C., […]
Summary List Placement This summer is looking a lot brighter for teen employment compared to last year. Pew Research noted that in 2020, teen summer employment “plunged to its lowest level since the Great Recession, erasing a decade’s worth of slow gains.” However, the employment-to-population ratio, or the share of teens who have a job, […]
Summary List Placement Even in an increasingly vaccinated America, dining out just isn’t the same as it was two years ago. At many restaurants, you can no longer linger past dessert as late as you once could and you might end up forking over more dollars for your meal. It has a lot to due […]
The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell two basis points from the week prior to 2.88%, according to mortgage rates data released Thursday by Freddie Mac‘s PMMS. According to Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, the decline provides modest relief to those who are looking to buy homes in a tough market, with scant inventory and […]
Summary List Placement Initial unemployment claims came in at 360,000 for the week ending July 10, below the previous week’s revised read of 386,000. That reading matched the consensus forecast among economists, according to Bloomberg. The decline in the seasonally adjusted number resumes the overall downward trend of the volatile data series after an unexpected […]
Summary List Placement A frothy M&A environment helped to boost profits at the big banks in the second quarter, as did large releases of loan loss provisions firms had stored away in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. But as revenues in fixed-income trading fell short of those seen during last year’s volatile […]