Menu

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace is currently 5.08 percent, up fifteen basis points from 4.93 percent compared to this same time last week. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose last week, spiking Sunday at 5.14 percent before falling to 5.05 percent Monday.

A new study released by Bankrate, Inc. shows that, with economic uncertainty still lingering, many Americans plan to use their tax refunds in a fiscally conservative fashion, with 84 percent intending to pay down debt, save or invest, or use it for everyday necessities.

A new Harris Poll provides some unpleasant numbers about the housing crisis and the collapse of the house price bubble. Fully 24% of people with mortgages believe they owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. One in nine homeowners (11%) with mortgages report having “a great deal of difficulty” in paying off their mortgage. Another 18% are having “some difficulty.” This comes at a time when two-thirds of all adults (65%) are concerned that their families’ incomes “will not be enough to cover all their costs and expenses this year.”

The Conference Board Employment Trends Index™ (ETI) rose in March for the seventh consecutive month. The index now stands at 94.4, up from February's revised figure of 93.7. The index is up 5.5 percent from a year ago. Over the past three months, all of the index's eight components have been improving.

comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month period between November 2009 and February 2010. The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone platforms in the U.S. according to their share of usage by current mobile subscribers age 13 and older, and reviewed the most popular activities and content accessed via the subscriber’s primary mobile phone. The February report found Motorola to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 22.3 percent market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 42.1 percent market share.

The main challenge for the next Czech government taking over after the May elections will be to repair the deterioration in public finances caused by the economic crisis, says a new OECD report. To promote medium-term growth, more should be done to improve the regulatory environment for business, lower the administrative burden and make the tax system less distortive.

Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 162,000 in March, and the unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.Temporary help services and health care continued to add jobs over the month. Employment in federal government also rose, reflecting the hiring of temporary workers for Census 2010. Employment continued to decline in financial activities and in information.

Fitch Ratings says in a special report that the global economic recovery which began in mid-2009 appears to be gathering momentum.

The EU’s newest member countries – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia – are set to return to growth in 2010 and 2011, but the rate of growth is likely to be lower than the pre-crisis rate. According to the World Bank’s new EU10 Regular Economic Report, after contracting by 3.6 percent in 2009, the latest government projections have the EU10 countries set to expand by a modest 1.6 percent in 2010, and 3.6 percent in 2011.

The jobs outlook may be brightening, but a new survey shows employers are still taking actions that impact employee sentiment. In the first quarter, nearly half (48 percent) of employees1 reported their employers made changes to the number of staff, organizational structure, compensation and benefits or other perks in the past six months, according to the Q1 Glassdoor.com® Employment Confidence Survey of 2,315 U.S. adults conducted on its behalf by Harris Interactive®.