Oil prices fell slightly Thursday as stocks slipped, after gaining more than 5% earlier this week.
Nearly 2 million jobs have been lost this year and more cuts are coming. Could you be next? Here's what you can do if you're worried you'll lose your job.
President-elect Barack Obama hasn't put a dollar figure yet on his promise to create an economic recovery package that he says will generate or save 2.5 million jobs over two years.
At least 7.5 million Americans owe more on their mortgages than their homes are currently worth, according to a real estate research firm's report released Friday.
You already know that the housing crisis has wreaked havoc with the economy and financial markets, not to mention the lives of millions who've lost or could lose their homes. But there may be a less obvious casualty too: your retirement prosperity.
Sales of existing homes rose 3.1 percent in July, easily beating Wall Street's expectations, as buyers snapped up deeply discounted properties in parts of the country hit hardest by the housing bust
U.S. home prices posted record declines in April, extending a painful losing streak for U.S. home prices.
Soaring foreclosures are continuing to raise questions about the mortgage industry's claims that they are making a dent in the housing crisis
Only a few years ago, Americans who considered themselves middle class were scrimping to pay for their kids' college education.
There's no telling how long the housing crisis will drag on. Here's what you need to know before you start shopping in a rocky market.
While the Federal Reserve's aggressive drive to lower interest rates appears to be over, there could be benefits for consumers in other places -- like some relief from soaring gasoline and food costs
When Pennsylvanians go to the polls Tuesday, the issue at the top of their minds will be the economy. The nation's fiscal health trumped the war in Iraq by nearly 2-to-1 as likely voters' main concern, a recent Quinnipiac University poll showed.
In the run up to the Pennsylvania primary this Tuesday, the headlines have focused on issues such as the Democratic candidates' religious piety and empathy for the working class.
Construction spending fell in February, according to a government report released Tuesday, but the decline was less than expected.
A bold new proposal to combat foreclosures was unveiled in Washington on Thursday.
Inventories and sales of U.S. wholesalers both rose during January, the Commerce Department said Monday.
Consumers increased their borrowing by $6.9 billion in January, just about in line with expectations, the Federal Reserve said Friday.
Will the economic problems facing the country force the presidential candidates to take action? CNN's Frank Sesno reports.
A growing number of top economists believe that the U.S. economy has now toppled into recession.
Economic growth nearly ground to a halt in the last three months of 2007, according to a government report released Wednesday that showed the sharpest decline in growth since 2003.
Even as Washington nears agreement on measures to minimize the effects of a recession, there is little agreement on how much such moves would boost the economy.
The labor market is expected to end 2007 with a whimper, but even that modest forecast could be seen as "the good old days," since monthly job losses may become common in the year ahead, according to economists.
The United States is deep in its worst housing slump since the Great Depression, and according to a new report, it's not going to get better any time soon.
Prices paid by consumers rose faster in November, lifted by a spike in the price of gasoline, as the government's key inflation measure came in higher than Wall Street forecasts.
If your business suffers from real estate blues brought on by plummeting prices, it may come as little comfort to know that this trend was supposed to have ended by now. When the market began its downturn in early 2006, some of the smartest economists in the country, as well as the CEOs of major home-builders and the National Association of Realtors, predicted that prices would rebound by mid-2007. Instead the experts have been humbled by the depth and breadth of the downturn - and the resulting sub-prime credit crisis has shaken financial markets around the world.
Dreaming that falling real estate prices have finally brought a vacation home within reach? Could be.
You can't blame America's homeowners for feeling hopelessly confused. From suburban porches and city terraces, they're gawking at a housing world gone mad. Just 18 months ago, folks on a tony Linden Lane or a leafy Boxwood Court were astounded to see the colonial their neighbors bought for $600,000 in 2000 sell for $1.5 million after multiple bids. Now they're just as bewildered to watch the same model across the street go begging for months at $1.1 million without a single offer.
The battered markets for real estate and home building still have farther to fall, according to a range of economists who spoke Wednesday at a forecast conference sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders.
The Federal Reserve's aggressive half-point cut Tuesday could provide support for a slumping housing market.
All eyes are on the Federal Reserve and whether or not it will cut rates next week. If you're looking for a loan, wondering whether to refinance or just anxious about real estate, here's how to play the Fed's decision in your favor.
Moody's Economy.com is forecasting an increased risk for recession in the next six to 12 months due to the subprime mess, which has shaken investor and consumer confidence, bumped up foreclosures and led to a tightening of credit standards for most loans.
In another sign of how dire the subprime mess has become, mortgage lenders shed about 18,000 jobs this month, according to one estimate.
The outlook for the housing market looks even bleaker than it did a week ago. Last Friday we reported that foreclosures were skyrocketing, home prices falling and recovery forecasts were being scaled back.
Another rough day on the subprime front. AIG, the world's largest insurer and one of the biggest mortgage lenders, said residential mortgage delinquencies and defaults are becoming more common among borrowers in the category just above subprime.
The outlook for the housing market looks bleaker than ever. Foreclosures are skyrocketing. Home prices continue to fall. And forecasts for a recovery keep getting pushed back.
The already poor performance of many mortgage loans will worsen substantially through the rest of the year, according to an analysis released Thursday by Moody's Economy.com.
The outlook for the housing sector has grown bleaker after a key measure of builder confidence fell to its lowest level in 10 years, according to a government report released Wednesday.
The job market kept humming along last month with few signs that the slowdown in the housing market has made much of a dent in hiring, according to the government's employment report Friday.
The economy grew at a slightly faster pace in the first quarter than previously thought, the government said Thursday, but the reading also included slightly higher inflation pressures.
Help wanted - at hotels, hospitals, accounting firms and your local school and stores.
The great American hiring boom is slowing down--but as labor cools with the rest of the economy, a few choice regions will stay red-hot. You just have to know where to look.
Sometime after my 40th birthday, two of my most frequent recurring dreams stopped recurring.
As homeowners begin to use more caution in borrowing against home equity lines of credit, consumer spending could be lowering, according to a published report Thursday.
The notion of the little guy striking it rich - finding gold at Sutter's Mill, discovering oil at Spindletop, or cashing in on a dot-com IPO in Silicon Valley - runs deep in American lore. But some...
Non-profits and lawmakers are stepping up efforts to help people at risk of losing their homes. But critics contend the programs will do little to stem the nation's rising tide of foreclosures.
Major real estate forecasters are looking for prices to bounce along the bottom this year and next and fully recover by 2009.
Now that we've pointed out which markets are poised for a bull run in the next cycle, we'd be remiss if we didn't also offer some guidance on which locales look the most vulnerable right now. So we...
Many Americans looking at the values of their homes are asking not whether it will fall, but how much. But in fact, more than half of the 100 top markets in the U.S. are slated to rise next year.
This time last year the big question was whether the real estate market was going to slow down. Today it's "How bad will it get?"
Analysts believe gas prices will likely continue their recent upward trend in December, according to a report published Thursday.
Larry and Tammy Curell are learning the meaning of Surprise, Ariz. The Curells had hoped to move to a bigger house in the fall. But nine months after putting their newly built four-bedroom on the m...
Now that we've pointed out which markets are poised for a bull run in the next cycle, we'd be remiss if we didn't also offer some guidance on which locales look the most vulnerable right now.
The housing market will get worse before it gets better - that's the finding of an analysis by Moody's Economy.com.
The housing market will get worse before it gets better - that's the finding of an analysis by Moody's Economy.com to be released Wednesday.
The nation's economic growth slowed significantly in the second quarter, according to a government report Friday that came in well below Wall Street expectations, raising expectations that the Federal Reserve won't raise interest rates again at its next meeting.
These guidelines reduce complex money questions to simple formulas. How well do you know them?
Prices at the wholesale level rose faster in June, according to a government report, but stripping out food and energy prices left the closely watched inflation reading in line with expectations.
Home sales are slowing. Condo prices are slipping. Sellers can't get their asking prices. And real estate bulls, including Columbia University economics professor Christopher Mayer, who not long ag...
THE HOUSING MARKET IS COMING IN FOR A landing--and so far, at least, it looks like a soft one. Nationwide, single-family-home prices will rise 3.5% between now and June 2007, according to forecaste...
Home sales are slowing. Condo prices are slipping. Sellers can't get their asking prices.
The housing market is coming in for a landing - and so far, at least, it looks like a soft one.
It never pays to get caught up in group hysteria, especially when it comes to real estate. Conditions vary from town to town, and no national statistics can give you a clear picture of what's happe...
Each day brings fresh evidence of peaking home prices. But, with the right strategies, sellers can still command top dollar.
The dollar tumbled to an 11-month low against the euro and bond prices edged higher Friday after a report showed the U.S. economy bounced back in the first quarter but that inflation was largely in check.
With retail sales proving more sluggish than expected -- and concerns that home heating bills will crimp sales even further -- many retailers are finding the need to be more creative this holiday season.
Once upon a time, almost everybody took out conventional 30-year fixed-rate loans and dreamed of the day when the house was not only bought but paid for.
Home prices in many American metro areas have soared, and many of their residents are either pulling up stakes and moving to lower priced regions -- many more are thinking about it.
The outcome of the Federal Reserve Board's Tuesday meeting could add more fuel to the fire for rising 30-year mortgage rates.
While the Fed's recent series of interest rate hikes hasn't sent traditional 30-year mortgages through the roof, it's driving up rates on other popular home loans.
What should we make of the media rumblings that stagflation is about to rear its ugly head again? Stagflation, in case you missed it the first time around, is economic stagnation plus inflation--a ...
Maybe you grinned a little more last summer knowing your car was diesel-powered after seeing other drivers scowling over rising gas prices.
30-year mortgage rates rose above 6 percent Thursday for the first time since March, potentially helping set the stage for a slowdown in home sales.
Americans already feel worsening daily gas pains. A few months, or even a few weeks from now, consumers could be dishing out more for grocery bills, too.
If gas hits $4 a gallon, then all bets are off for the U.S. consumer who has shown remarkable resilience to higher gasoline prices.
The surging cost of crude oil has pushed gas prices to record highs, and inflation anxiety is dragging down the stock market. Most oil watchers believe that prices will settle below $50 a barrel, b...
Plenty of small businesses are hiring these days, but none of the owners I know are bringing on staff economists. Instead they are reduced to tracking economic trends the same way I do: scanning bu...
Consumer confidence is at a two-year high. The economy is expanding (even if the June job growth numbers weren't quite as rosy as analysts had expected). And investors are feeling downright cocky a...
At 2:15 p.m. Eastern Time on June 30, the day of the scheduled handover of sovereignty to Iraq, look for another major symbolic change on the economic front: a 0.25% interest rate boost from the Fe...
Home prices are high and interest rates are low. So why not supersize your mortgage (or tack on a hefty home-equity loan) to get the house of your dreams?
Call it the refinancing Lollapalooza. As interest rates plunged over the past three years to near-historic lows, millions of Americans rushed to refinance their mortgages--and ended up flush with m...
A $70,000 surprise. That's what my parents got this past fall, in the form of a termite infestation that ate away the inside of three interior walls from the basement to the third floor. "I'm shock...
A survey of 1,002 homeowners conducted for Sears Roebuck by Matthew Greenwald & Associates backs me up in my contention that too many homeowners are unprepared for the expenses of ownership.
Waiting for the recovery in business spending has been a bit like waiting for Godot. Lots of talk, plenty of anticipation, no action. For more than two years the corporate sector has been mired in ...
The waiting is over. let the rebound begin. it may seem an unlikely time for optimism, what with growing unemployment, stock prices down some 40%, and looming $350 billion budget deficits. Neverthe...
Afraid the recession will never end? Worried about deflation? Frightened by the economic consequences of a war in Iraq? Well, aren't we all? But you still have to plan, based on the best assumption...
Nearly all the economic news since summertime has been depressing, confirming suspicions that this recovery is a dog--uneven, anemic, and jobless. Some of the news has been downright alarming: The ...
Ever since the stock market began its swan dive in the spring of 2000, economists and market watchers have been posing the same question over and over again: When, they ask, "is consumer spending g...
Lately Fed chairman Alan Greenspan has sounded upbeat and hopeful about the U.S. economy. So has the Bush administration, not to mention a large number of Wall Street economists. They keep telling ...
It's a frigid early morning in January, and Michael DePasquale, or Rusty, as he prefers to be called, has finished loading his van with containers of milk, sugar, cups, and coffee-brewing equipment...
The Fed's 11 interest rate cuts may have helped prop up the stock market, but as any conservative investor knows, they're wreaking havoc on money market funds. Yields are the lowest they've been in...
Worried about losing your job? A gut check is available with Economy.com's layoff calculator. Type in a few stats, and it spits out the percent chance that you'll be canned. Lawyers in Phoenix are ...
Fireproof Insurance
Wanna hear some good news about the economy? Then stop reading. Because what follows is one more reason to crawl into bed and dream of 1999.
What's wrong with this scenario? The Nasdaq is down 61% from its peak, consumer confidence has plummeted, the manufacturing sector is contracting, and residential real estate is booming.
Ken Courtis is trying to remember what he did last week. Straight off a plane from Tokyo, he's sitting stiffly on the edge of a couch at the Regal Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Despite the nine-ho...
The Internet is changing more than our tastes and habits. It's transforming the economy too. We're now enjoying the longest economic expansion in history, partly because the Internet and related in...
For home buyers, this fall should be a kinder time to borrow: The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has dropped to 8.14%--down from 8.82% in May, and the lowest point since Dec...
August
