The Federal Open Market Committee voted to leave the Fed Funds Rate unchanged within its current target range of 0.000-0.250 percent Wednesday. For the fifth consecutive meeting, the Fed Funds Rate vote was nearly unanimous. Just one FOMC member, Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker,
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06/21/2012
Home builders anticipate growth in the market for newly-built, single-family homes. For June 2012, the National Association of Homebuilders reports its monthly Housing Market Index at 29 -- an increase of more than 100% from one year ago and the highest HMI value since May 2007. When the Housi
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06/19/2012
The number of U.S. housing markets showing "measurable and sustained growth" slipped by 20 in June, according to the National Association of Homebuilders. The Improving Market Index is meant to identify housing markets in which economic growth is occurring as a whole -- not just in the real estat
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06/14/2012
Mortgage markets worsened last week, halting a multi-week mortgage rate winning streak in Minnesota and nationwide. With little economic news on which to trade, investors took their cues from the world's central banks. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke neither dismissed nor promised new market stimulus i
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06/11/2012
Beginning Monday, June 11, the FHA is changing its mortgage insurance premium schedule for the second time this year. Some FHA mortgage applicants will pay lower mortgage insurance premiums going forward. Others will pay more. The new premiums apply to all FHA mortgages, both purchase and refinan
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06/08/2012
For the second straight year, the jobs market looks to be slowing into the summer. Last Friday, in its monthly Non-Farm Payrolls report for May 2012, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 69,000 net new jobs created, plus a one-tick rise in the national Unemployment Rate to 8.2%. 2012 is shapin
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06/05/2012
The housing market took a breather in April. After forging past its benchmark value of 100 in March, April's Pending Home Sales Index dropped back to 95.5, its lowest reading of the year. The data suggests fewer home resales throughout Minnesota and nationwide in the months ahead. A "pending home
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05/31/2012
