Research Center

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that the delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties decreased to 6.96 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of the second quarter of 2013, the lowest level since mid-2008.

Case-Shiller’s most recent numbers last week pointed to sustained growth in U.S. home valuations, though the report was for the three months ending in May.

According to the Federal Reserve, reporting in its July 2013 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices, domestic banks claim (on balance) to have eased their lending standards, and have experienced stronger demand for loans over the past three months.

The monthly unemployment numbers for July were relatively weak—up 176,000 jobs—and it turns out that the previous months weren’t quite as strong as first reported, according to revisions released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the economy created 162,000 jobs.

By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor In recent weeks, prognosticators have been predicting that U.S. real gross domestic product would barely increase at all in the second quarter. On Wednesday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released its first, or “advance,” estimate of real GDP for 2Q13: an annualized increase of 1.7 percent. Though not especially robust, growth was better than expected. In the first quarter, real GDP increased by only 1.1 percent, annualized. The increase in real GDP in the second quarter reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (people out buying stuff), exports (foreigners buying our stuff), nonresidential fixed investment…

U.S. residential prices continued their upward climb in May, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.