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Americans want to know: Is this a recession or not? Officially, the National Bureau of Economic Research defines recession as “a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and lasts more than a few months.” In fact, the latest quarterly gross domestic product report, which tracks the overall health of the economy, showed

A prospective home buyer is shown a home by a real estate agent in Coral Gables, Florida. Joe Raedle | Getty Images Mortgage demand edged lower for the fourth straight week, according to data released Wednesday, even though interest rates have fallen from their recent highs. Total volume was down 1.8% last week from the

A “Sale Pending” sign outside a house in Discovery Bay, California, on Thursday, March 31, 2022. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Signed contracts to purchase existing homes dropped 20% in June compared with the same month a year ago, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. That is the slowest pace since

The Federal Reserve raised the target federal funds rate by another 0.75 percentage points at the end of its two-day meeting Wednesday, in an effort to curb unrelenting inflation. Fed officials have already raised benchmark short-term borrowing rates 1.5 percentage points this year, including June’s 75-basis point increase, which marked the largest increase in nearly three decades. The

Top officials at the Federal Reserve were seeing inflation data come in very hot for months before policymakers moved to wind down monetary policies that were stimulating the economy. A chorus of analysts, economists and former policymakers have chimed in, saying that was a mistake. “The forward guidance, overall, slowed the response to the Fed

Banks in Singapore raised housing loan rates in June, following the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to increase interest rates by 75 basis points in the same month to cool inflation — its most aggressive hike since 1994. Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images Homeowners in Singapore are starting to tighten their belts as they will

andresr | E+ | Getty Images Covid-19 relief and record-low interest rates boosted many Americans’ finances during the pandemic. That has been especially true for millennials, who have on average built significant wealth. Millennials, born between 1981 and 1996, have more than doubled their total net worth, reaching $9.38 trillion in the first quarter of

In China, people typically buy apartments before they are completed. Pictured here on June 28, 2022, are unfinished residences in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Future Publishing | Future Publishing | Getty Images BEIJING — Goldman Sachs has cut its forecast for the MSCI China index due to a worsening slump in China’s property market.

The Covid-19 pandemic caused chaos in the U.S. housing market, with prices skyrocketing, inventories dwindling and intense bidding wars. Then came record inflation, which drove the price of everything higher. The U.S. Federal Reserve, though, is waging an intense fight against rising prices, using interest rates as its primary weapon. A side effect of raising

The pain in the mortgage market is only getting worse as higher interest rates and inflation hammer American consumers. Mortgage demand fell more than 6% last week compared with the previous week, hitting the lowest level since 2000, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home

Brendan Wallace, co-founder and managing partner of Fifth Wall in their Manhattan office. Source: CNBC Fifth Wall, a venture capital firm focused on real estate technology, is tripling down on its bet that climate tech will become an integral driver in the real estate space. It just announced commitments of half a billion dollars to

Former President Donald Trump Jonathan Ernst | Reuters A former special New York prosecutor who quit a criminal investigation of ex-President Donald Trump after his boss declined to lodge charges at the time said that if Trump “had been Joe Blow from Kokomo, we would have indicted without a big debate.” “I believe that Donald

The Asian Development Bank has cut its growth forecast for China due to concerns over the country’s zero-Covid approach and strict lockdowns, which put even more pressure on the real estate sector. Gross domestic product growth for the world’s second largest economy is expected to be at 4% in 2022, down from an earlier estimate

Sales of previously owned homes in June fell 5.4% from May, according to a monthly report from the National Association of Realtors, as prices set records and rates surged. The sales count declined to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 5.12 million units last month, the group said. Sales were 14.2% lower compared with June