The state of the economy, falling wages, and rising unemployment have had a dramatically negative impact on homes sales over the past year, but several factors have recently contributed to a turnaround in the home market. However, the 0.7 percent gain in home sales that was seen last month was far below what analysts on Wall Street expected.
New-home sales increased in August to 429,000, up from the 426,000 homes that were sold in July, according to statistics released by the Commerce Department. Although it was the fifth consecutive month to feature an increase in home sales, the percentage of growth …read more

If there is one company that has benefited from the economic downturn, it is the budget retail giant Wal-Mart, luring in more and more bargain hunting customers as Americans struggle to stretch their paychecks. Despite a noticeable slowdown in consumer spending across the board, Wal-Mart has managed to post an 88 cent-per-share profit, edging out their performance last year and topping analyst expectations.
Wal-Mart’s shares are up 2.5 percent in late-afternoon trading Thursday after having fallen 19 percent since September 2008. Analysts have credited the oft-maligned retail giant with improving its stores dramatically, cutting inventory and making its locations more desirable …read more

Although the national housing crisis has had a major hand in the economic troubles facing the United States, Tuesday brought some unexpected good news. In the month of February, housing starts were up more than 20%.
The biggest reason for the jump was in the apartment buildings sector of the report. Compared to the previous month, construction of apartments was up more than 80%.
Due to this housing report, which was released by the Commerce Department, the stock market rallied. For the day, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 2.5% to finish at 7,395.70. Other indexes also showed improvements including the …read more

The National Association of Home Builders recently reported — citing statistics from the Commerce Department — that the sales of newly built single-family homes fell 11.5 percent in August.