Economy/Ecommerce

The National Association of Home Builders reported that builder confidence in the 55+ housing market improved during the fourth quarter of 2012, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

Trulia reported that as newly constructed multifamily buildings are completed, the pace of rent gains fell at the national level for the first time since the price recovery began last spring.

CoreLogic reported that home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased year-over-year by 8.3 percent in December 2012.

The Federal Reserve reported on Monday in its Senior Loan Office Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices for January that “generally modest fractions” of domestic banks have reported eased their standards across major loan categories over the past three months.

At a net of 157,000 new jobs, the rise in employment during January wasn’t particularly strong, but there was other good news in Friday’s Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

The U.S. economy created 157,000 jobs in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s down compared with most months in 2012, which averaged about 181,000 jobs created per month, so 2013 is off to a tepid start.

Real U.S. gross domestic product declined at an annualized rate 0.1 percent during the fourth quarter of 2012, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ preliminary estimate.

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices Indices, which were released on Tuesday, showed that residential prices were up 4.5 percent in the nation’s 10 largest metro areas, and 5.5 percent in the 20 largest metros, for the 12 months ending in November 2012.