Another busy day and I skipped the MBA market index earlier ... note: The MBA Q3 delinquency report will be released tomorrow. The MBA reports: Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume decreased 2.5 perce ... Read more

"It's déjà vu all over again". Yogi Berra From the LA Times: Jobless Benefits Set to Expire Unless Congress Acts About one million laid-off workers will see their unemployment benefits end in January ... The [recently] added federal benefits were built on a series of previous extensions ... Read more

After reading some of the commentary regarding the housing starts report this morning, it might be useful to reiterate these three points: Residential investment is the best leading indicator for the economy. Residential investment will not recover rapidly because of the large overhang of exi ... Read more

The Census Bureau has released the " Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design " report for Q3 2009. Monthly housing starts (even single family starts) cannot be compared directly to new home sales, because the monthly housing starts report from the Census Bureau includes apartment ... Read more

From the BLS report on the Consumer Price Index this morning: The rent index decreased 0.1 percent, the index for owners' equivalent rent [OER] was unchanged ... The rent index decreased at a -1.3% annualized rate, and OER declined in three of four ranges (only the Northeast Urban Region saw an in ... Read more

From the American Institute of Architects : Index remains in negative category despite improvement Amidst a continued high level of inquiries for possible new projects, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) reached its highest mark since August 2008, just before the serious credit problems emerged ... Read more

Click on graph for larger image in new window. Total housing starts were at 529 thousand (SAAR) in October, down 10.6% from the revised September rate, and up from the all time record low in April of 479 thousand (the lowest level since the Census Bureau began tracking housing starts in ... Read more

From the LA Times: California faces a projected deficit of $21 billion Less than four months after California leaders stitched together a patchwork budget, a projected deficit of nearly $21 billion already looms, according to a report to be released Wednesday by the state's chief budget analyst. ... Read more

David Leonhardt writes in the NY Times: A Stimulus That Could Save Money White House officials are now looking at creating a new version of cash for clunkers — this time for home weatherization. ... [John] Doerr calls his proposal, which would give households money to pay for weatherization pr ... Read more

From the WaPo: House shifts focus to 'jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs' "It's jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs," Rep. John B. Larson (D-Conn.) ... said ... "Members of this caucus feel ... that a jobless recovery is just simply unacceptable to us." And Reuters list some possible items "under consideration": U.S. Hou ... Read more