» Uncategorized http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1 Your platform for voicing your opinions about the housing market. Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:26:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 en How Job Losses In The Economy Are Helping Home Affordability http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1/2008/07/03/how-job-losses-in-the-economy-are-helping-home-affordability/ http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1/2008/07/03/how-job-losses-in-the-economy-are-helping-home-affordability/#comments Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:11:16 +0000 dgreen http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1/2008/07/03/how-job-losses-in-the-economy-are-helping-home-affordability/ On the first Friday of each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its Non-Farm Payrolls report.More commonly, it’s called the “jobs report”.
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The jobs report is a sector-by-sector look into the U.S. economy and whether businesses are hiring — or firing — workers.  This is one of the reasons why its release is so hotly anticipated each month — the jobs report can reveal a lot about the state of the U.S. economy.

Last month, the economy shed 62,000 jobs.

Now, many people will assume that job losses like this are terrible for the U.S. economy.  Sometimes, that’s true.

This month, it’s not.

Given the ongoing tug-o-war between inflation and recession, markets are somewhat pleased with the June job loss figures because job losses reduce the likelihood of inflation in the U.S. economy.

nfp_june_2008_1215096870.gifInflation is considered by many — Ben Bernanke included — to be among the top threats to the U.S. economy — it devalues the dollar and leads to increases in the Cost of Living.

Inflation also threatens home affordability because mortgage rates tend to rise when inflation is present.

June’s job losses — while bad for those impacted — is helping to relieve inflationary pressures on the economy and that is boosting markets performance this morning.  Stocks are slightly up, and mortgage rates are slightly down.

(Image courtesy: The Wall Street Journal)

]]> http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1/2008/07/03/how-job-losses-in-the-economy-are-helping-home-affordability/feed/ Hello world! http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1/2008/03/12/hello-world/ http://www.americanstreetblog.com/blog1/2008/03/12/hello-world/#comments Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:26:14 +0000 americanstreet http://02a7add.netsolhost.com/blog1/?p=1 Welcome to American Street Blog! Please, check back often as this blog is going to be transformed in the coming days. We look forward to sharing our insights into the mortgage industry with you!

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