News

The nation’s unemployment rate remained at 7.8 percent in December as payrolls increased 155,000, slightly ahead of consensus forecasts, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Economists had forecast payrolls would grow by 150,000, slightly higher than the 146,000 increase in payrolls originally reported for November, and that the unemployment rate would remain at November's 7.7 percent.

National Real Estate Information Services (NREIS) is shuttering the doors to its Pittsburgh office in February, according to a Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice posted on the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry's website. The February 15 closing will affect 215 employees. NREIS employs more than 1,200 people, according to the company's website.

The results of the Census Bureau's and HUD's American Housing Survey are now available for the first time ever via the Census' American FactFinder data access tool, the agencies announced Thursday. The survey covers a wide range of topics, including housing problems, householder's satisfaction with home and neighborhood, purchase price and type of mortgage, and socio-economic characteristics of the householder. Statistics are provided on the national level for apartments, single-family homes, manufactured housing, new construction, and vacant housing units.

In Q3 2012, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed about 134,200 foreclosure prevention actions, according to a report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). Of that total, 62,500 foreclosure prevention actions were through loan modifications, and 38,000 were from short sales and deeds-in-lieu. Overall, since the start of their conservatorship in September 2008, the GSEs have completed 2.5 million foreclosure prevention actions.

Completed foreclosures in Massachusetts fell year-over-year for the sixth consecutive month in November, while foreclosure petitions were down to the lowest level seen so far this year.

The year 2012 was a big year for certain markets as prices grew by leaps and bounds after seeing declines in 2011. On Thursday, Trulia released a report revealing changes in asking prices in 2011 and 2012 among the 100 largest metros. After measuring improvements over the two years, Trulia ranked Las Vegas as the top turnaround market based on its recovery in asking prices. Trulia also found nine out of the top 10 turnaround markets were located West and Southwest, and the top six saw double digit increases.

After going into free-fall for much of 2012, fixed mortgage rates started off 2013 with very slight declines, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey. The average 30-year fixed rate was 3.34 percent (0.7 point) for the week ending January 3, down from 3.35 percent in the last week of 2012. The average 30-year fixed rate was 3.91 percent at the beginning of last year. The 15-year fixed average also fell, sliding to 2.64 percent (0.7 point) from 2.65 percent previously. A year ago at this time, the 15-year fixed rate averaged 3.23 percent.

Fewer homes were added to foreclosure inventory in November as short sales become a more common tool to prevent foreclosure, CoreLogic reported Thursday. Data from CoreLogic revealed 55,000 homes were lost to foreclosure in November. The figure represents a 23 percent decrease from November 2011 and a 6 percent decrease from October’s upwardly revised 59,000. Although foreclosure inventory is shrinking, the number of completed foreclosures is still high compared to pre-crises levels.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance rose 10,000 to 372,000 for the week ending December 29, the third-lowest level of the year, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists expected claims to increase to 363,000.

The New York Times recently reported a $10 billion settlement is in the works between federal regulators and 14 banks. In April 2011, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Reserve, and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) announced enforcement actions against the 14 banks after investigations led to allegations of abusive foreclosure practices.