Economy/Ecommerce

The National Multi Housing Council reported that all four indexes of its October Survey of Apartment Market Conditions dipped below 50 for the first time since July 2009.

Home value specialist Zillow said that the pace of residential price appreciation nationwide slowed down in the third quarter of 2013, and it even turned negative in some markets.

No sooner was the federal government shutdown over on Thursday than estimates of its cost to the U.S. economy were being published.

There was more uncertainty and inconclusiveness on Capitol Hill on Tuesday as the putative date of default (Thursday) got very close indeed.

There’s nothing like a deadline to inspire action, so finally on Wednesday, Congress voted to raise the debt ceiling so that the federal government doesn’t default on existing obligations, and end the partial shutdown of government operations.

As of Monday night, the debt-ceiling standoff was reportedly close to resolution—at least if word from the various top Senators involved could be taken at face value—but no resolution had been achieved.

A debt-ceiling and shutdown deal seemed possible on Friday, but things seemed to go retrograde over the weekend.

No agreement about the looming debt ceiling or the shutdown of the federal government had been reached—but that didn’t stop reports of a possible short-term agreement on the most pressing of those two fiscal situations, namely the debt ceiling.