According to Wall Street Journal, “Retail sales last month dropped 0.1%, the Commerce Department said Thursday.The dip was a huge disappointment on Wall Street. Vouchers for the car rebate program weren’t available until the last part of July; perhaps the program will have a more positive effect on overall retail sales for August.Demand for goods aside from cars took a large tumble last month, with big declines for housing-related retailers and electronic stores.Excluding autos, all other retail sales dropped 0.6%;…” Continue Reading [5]
According to Bloomberg “Foreclosure filings in the U.S. climbed to a record for the third time in five months in July as falling home prices and the recession left more homeowners unable to keep up payments or refinance.A total of 360,149 properties received a default or auction notice or were seized last month…The median price of an existing single-family house dropped 15.6 percent to $174,100 in the second quarter,” Continue Reading [6]