Labor/Economy

In another indication that home price appreciation isn’t quite as fleet-footed as it has been recently, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said that its House Price Index was up 0.3 percent in August compared with the previous month.

The delayed U.S. employment report for September from the Bureau of Labor Statistics turned in a modest 148,000 new jobs for the month and noted a downtick in the unemployment official rate, from 7.3 percent to 7.2 percent—though that was mostly because of a small decline in workforce participation.

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.