Summary List Placement Economic recovery is largely driving President Joe Biden’s agenda, and to him, a primary part of that recovery means boosting the middle class. To do that, he said the wealthy need to start paying their fair share in taxes. “I’m tired of trickle down,” Biden said during a CNN town hall on […]
The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage sank 10 basis points to 2.78% for the week ending on July 22, continuing several weeks of declines, according to mortgage rates data released Thursday by Freddie Mac‘s PMMS. According to Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, concerns about the COVID-19 Delta variant and the recovery from the pandemic are […]
Summary List Placement Initial jobless claims for the week ending July 17 came in at 419,000, far higher than the consensus expectation of 350,000, according to Bloomberg. The unexpected spike in the number of Americans newly out of work from last week’s revised figure of 368,000 is another in a series of blips in a […]
Summary List Placement A 19-year-old manager of a Texas chicken restaurant told Insider that he expects to lose half of his staff in the next few weeks. Jason Cabrera runs the Allen, Texas, branch of the Layne’s Chicken Fingers restaurant chain, which promoted teenagers to management roles because of a severe staff shortage. Cabrera, who earns […]
Summary List Placement The leisure hospitality industry appears to be on its way to recovery after adding 343,000 people payrolls in June, making up 40% of total US job gains – but independent restaurants say they still can’t get enough staff. Seventy-four percent of independent restaurant owners say it’s harder to find employees than it […]
Summary List Placement Congressional Democrats slammed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky on Wednesday for threatening to oppose an extension of the US’s ability to pay its bills, a step that could jeopardize the US’s economic recovery if Congress doesn’t act. Sen. Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, told reporters that the […]
Summary List Placement Emergencies can happen when you least expect them. Financial advisors recommend people save six to nine months’ worth of expenses in case of an emergency — but 25% of Americans say they have no emergency savings at all, according to a new study from Bankrate. The survey results come as extreme weather […]
Summary List Placement Senate Republicans voted against advancing the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal on Wednesday in an early vote. But a key faction called for more time and said they can support the same agreement in four days. Republicans lined up to oppose the blueprint in a 49-51 vote on Wednesday afternoon. The measure […]
Summary List Placement The first batch of $300 monthly payments for children, known as the child tax credit, was just sent out to families last week as part of President Joe Biden’s stimulus law. While they are set to hit families’ bank accounts for the next five months, some Democrats want the payments to be […]
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 […]