Pending home sales dip 0.8% in March
WASHINGTON -- Fewer consumers signed contracts to buy U.S. homes last month.
The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that its pending home sales index slipped 0.8 percent to 111.4 in March, from 112.3 in February.
Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors, said a low supply of homes could mean higher prices in the months ahead.
"Sellers are in the driver's seat this spring as the intense competition for the few homes for sale is forcing many buyers to be aggressive in their offers," Yun said.
The Realtors reported last week that Americans had purchased homes in March at the fastest pace in over a decade, as more people seek to close deals with home prices on the rise.
Regionally, only the South saw an increase in signed contracts last month, up 2.9 percent. Signed contracts in the Northeast and West both declined 2.9 percent. The Midwest saw a 1.2 percent decline.
Pending sales contracts are a barometer of future purchases. A sale is typically completed a month or two after a contract is signed.
-- The Associated Press
Long-term mortgage rate rises to 4.03%
WASHINGTON -- Long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose this week for the first time in five weeks. The benchmark 30-year rate pushed back above 4 percent.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate on 30-year, fixed-rate home loans increased to 4.03 percent from 3.97 percent last week. The rate stood at 3.66 percent a year ago and averaged 3.65 percent in 2016, the lowest level in records dating to 1971.
The rate on 15-year mortgages rose to 3.27 percent from 3.23 percent last week.
While mortgage rates have declined in recent weeks, they are widely expected to continue to rise from last year's record lows, making people eager to buy.
Mortgage rates often track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. The yield on the benchmark bond soared last week as its price fell. The yield was at 2.30 percent Wednesday, up from 2.21 percent a week earlier. It rose further to 2.31 percent Thursday morning.
To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., surveys lenders across the country between Monday and Wednesday each week. The average doesn't include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.
The average fee for a 30-year mortgage was unchanged this week at 0.5 point. The fee on 15-year loans declined to 0.4 point from 0.5 point.
-- The Associated Press
Top Boston hospital seeks 1,600 buyouts
BOSTON -- One of Boston's most prestigious teaching hospitals is offering voluntary buyouts to 1,600 employees as a way to rein in costs during a period of uncertainty in the health care business.
Brigham and Women's Hospital said Thursday that the hospital is offering buyouts because expenses continue to rise and "constraints by government and payers" are keeping revenues flat, "negatively affecting" the hospital's finances.
Hospital officials said layoffs are possible depending on how many people accept a buyout.
Workers must be 60 or older to be eligible for the offer, which includes a year of base pay. Physicians, faculty and research staff are excluded.
Brigham and Women's, a 793-bed affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is a founding member of Partners HealthCare, the largest health network in Massachusetts. It employs about 16,000 people.
-- The Associated Press
Unemployment sign-ups rise by 14,000
WASHINGTON -- More Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, but applications remained at a low level that suggests most workers enjoy job security.
The Labor Department said weekly unemployment benefits claims rose by 14,000 to 257,000, the highest level in almost a month. The less volatile four-week average slipped by 500 to 242,250, the lowest since late February.
Overall, 1.99 million Americans are collecting unemployment benefits, down more than 7 percent from a year ago.
Unemployment claims are a proxy for layoffs. They have come in below 300,000 for 112 straight weeks, the longest streak since 1970. The numbers suggest that most American workers are secure in their jobs.
The U.S. economy is healthy, if not booming. Employers are adding 175,000 jobs a month so far this year and are confident enough to be holding onto their workers. The U.S. unemployment rate fell last month to 4.5 percent, the lowest in nearly a decade.
"The behavior of claims suggests there is room for the unemployment rate to decline further," Raymond Stone, co-founder of Stone & McCarthy Research Associates, wrote in a research report.
-- The Associated Press
Exxon ordered to pay $20M for pollution
BAYTOWN, Texas -- A judge has ordered Exxon Mobil to pay a penalty of nearly $20 million for releasing 10 million pounds of pollutants into the air over the course of eight years from a complex it operates east of Houston.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner in a ruling Wednesday determined that Texas-based Exxon violated federal clean-air standards on thousands of occasions from 2005 to 2013.
A Houston Chronicle report said the finding is the result of a lawsuit filed in 2010 by two environmental groups.
The groups argued that Exxon collected more than $14 million in economic benefits by delaying measures to curb the emissions from its plant in Baytown. They say the pollution could have been detected earlier using improvements such as infrared imaging technology.
Exxon said it's considering an appeal.
-- The Associated Press
Business on 04/28/2017