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Pending home sales have risen once again in July, marking the sixth-straight-monthly increase — the longest streak in the index’s eight-year history:
The Pending Home Sales Index,1 a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in July, increased 3.2 percent to 97.6 from a reading of 94.6 in June, and is 12.0 percent higher than July 2008 when it was 87.1. The index is at the highest level since June 2007 when it was 100.7.
We have been interestingly waiting to see which vehicles were most commonly traded in, and which new vehicles were purchased as a result of the Cash for Clunkers program. After all the drama surrounding C4C, would the program propel sales for domestic automakers?
Here are the supposed “final statistics” from CARS.gov –
The economy has forced the National Football League (NFL) to change a long-standing rule that forbade teams from fully sponsoring state lottery tickets. The reversal is unprecedented in that previously teams were only allowed under NFL rules to partially sponsor lottery tickets. Also, the league has long had reservations in the outright support of gambling amongst its fans.
The Economy Changes Everything
Update1: What started out as a last-ditch effort to save her home from foreclosure, has grown into a full-time job for one New Jersey woman. Back in July we wrote about Angela Logan, mother of three and self-taught baker, who baked and sold her own cakes to help pay for her mortgage:
Logan recently trademarked the name of her signature cake and signed a two-year licensing agreement with Bake Me A Wish, an online seller of special-event cakes.
According to the latest issue of HSH’s Market Trends Newsletter, “Markets Feeling Good, For Now,” the improving economy should bring higher rates along with it, but as of now, that hasn’t happened.
“While the sun’s not nearly out yet, the economic sky seems to continue to brighten. Usually, that would start to foster somewhat higher interest rates — but apparently, not yet.”
You may have read that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke recently had his identity stolen:
If ever there were living proof that identity theft can strike the mighty and powerful as well as hapless consumers, look no further than the nation’s chief banker: Ben Bernanke. The Federal Reserve Board chairman was one of hundreds of victims of an elaborate identity-fraud ring, headed by a convicted scam artist known as “Big Head,” that stole more than $2.1 million from unsuspecting consumers and at least 10 financial institutions around the country, according to recently filed court records reviewed by NEWSWEEK.
Ironically, it wasn’t because he was careless online or due to some hacker activity. No, this one was done old school:
With the recent announcement that the FDIC’s ‘problem bank’ list now is now well over 400, one bank CEO says it could get a lot worse:
The US banking system will lose some 1,000 institutions over the next two years, said John Kanas, whose private equity firm bought BankUnited of Florida in May.
(Update1): The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a bulletin on Wednesday regarding the specific provisions of the credit card reform that have already taken affect. The bulletin pertains specifically to the 45-days notice the card companies must provide cardholders when or if their interest rate will be changed (emphasis added):
The bulletin describes an interim final rule issued by the Federal Reserve Board that requires banks to notify customers 45 days in advance of any rate increase or significant changes in credit card account terms. The rules also require lenders to disclose that their customers have the right to reject those changes.
Another 111 lenders have been added to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) “problem bank” list. That bring the nation’s ‘problem bank’ list to a grand total of 416, the most in about 15 years. The institutions on the problem list represent nearly $300 billion in assets that the FDIC is responsible for insuring if they do indeed fail.
Eighty-one banks have failed so far in 2009, and the experts say there are more to come. The increase in failures has already prompted the FDIC to increase certain fees that they charge banks in order to raise additional funds:
A lawsuit filed by Lending Tree — a mortgage-loan lead generator — against Mortech, the company which provides Lending Tree’s loan-offering technology, certainly suggests so:
“LendingTree recently learned that Google imminently plans to launch a loan aggregation service in late August or early September of this year that would compete with LendingTree,” the complaint says. “Lending Tree has also learned that Mortech intends to make its pricing engine services available for use with Google’s new service and will send information related to mortgage loan offers to be displayed to consumer on Google’s Web site.”
