The Labor Department released its figures today, and they're a bit bleaker than we hoped for. Employers cut 63,000 jobs in February, which is a high for any month in the past five years. The job losses were witnessed in nearly every sector, including construction, manufacturing, retailing, finance and other professional and business services.
President Bush even spoke out today, saying that “it’s clear our economy has slowed” while trying to reassure us that the forecast was still good. He insisted that the government has recognized the problem early enough to get on top of it, and expressed hope that the rebate checks that will be sent out in May as part of the Stimulus Package would help spur consumer spending.
There was, however, some good news this week. On Wednesday HUD announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were temporarily raising their conforming loan limits, from $417,000 to as high as $729,750 in fourteen counties in California for loans originated between July 1, 2007 and Dec. 31, 2008. The idea is to make it easier for home buyers in expensive areas to get loans, as well as to increase investor demand for securities made up of more expensive mortgages. Los Angeles County, with our high home values, was one of the counties raised to the maximum level of $729,750. You can click here to see the values for your county.
(sources: car.org, msnbc.com)
1 comment:
love the updates! with all of the negativity out there, it is great to have an INFORMED optimist sharing her views. thanks, connie, and i look forward to more info!
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