.GIF)
.jpg)
Week of June 16, 2008
is a primary objective for NAHB as recent evidence points to tougher conditions in the market for acquisition, development and construction (AD&C) financing. [more]
NAHB resources to help get you through the tough times [more]
Builder confidence in the rental apartment market dropped [more]
Green building news: [more]
Education calendar [more]
30-year mortgage rates jump
By Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer
Rates on 30-year mortgages jumped to the highest level in nearly eight months, reflecting increased concerns about what the Federal Reserve might do to battle inflation.
Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported Thursday that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.32 percent this week. That was up sharply from 6.09 percent last week.
It was the highest level for 30-year mortgages since they averaged 6.33 percent for the week of Oct. 25.
Analysts attributed the big jump to increased concerns in financial markets that the Federal Reserve might be preparing to start raising interest rates in order to make sure that inflation does not get out of control.
More
Traffic improvements 'not an option'
By LOU SESSINGER, The Intelligencer
Perhaps as early as next spring, voters in Montgomery County might be given the chance to decide whether the county should borrow money to make their daily driving commute a little easier.
Faced with what is being termed a local transportation funding crisis, county officials are looking into borrowing perhaps $150 million or more and partnering with municipalities to make traffic-flow improvements at critical intersections around the county.
The question could be put to the voters by next April's primary election.
Downturn hits House assets and income
By Alexander Bolton, Thehill.com
Congressional leaders lost millions of dollars in last year’s economic downturn.
New financial disclosure reports reveal, however, that while House members suffered losses, senators defied the odds and saw their profit margins rise.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband, the San Francisco financier Paul Pelosi, lost between $880,000 and $7.4 million in various investments. As a result, the Pelosis earned only several hundred thousand dollars of income from their assets, which range between $29 million and $133 million, according to public reports.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel’s (Ill.) good fortune as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006 did not extend to his stock portfolio in 2007.
His and his wife’s reported assets dropped to between $4 million and $20 million. Their biggest drop came in a qualified blind trust that was valued at $5 million-$25 million in 2006 but only $1 million-$5 million at the end of last year.
Nutter eager to revive Planning Commission
By Patrick Kerkstra, Philadelphia Inquirer
Mayor Nutter will seek to reassert the preeminence of the Planning Commission as the shepherd of growth and development in Philadelphia this evening in what aides are billing as a major address.
"I'm here tonight to say as emphatically as I can that I want the Planning Commission to resume its leadership role in shaping our vision of the future and managing the development of our city," Nutter is expected to say tomorrow at the Academy of Natural Sciences, according to an early draft of his speech. "It will light the path to the prosperous, healthy, inclusive, sustainable future that we want for all Philadelphians."
The city's Planning Commission was once regarded as among the nation's best and most influential. Its influence has waned sharply in recent decades, and many developers have been free to build big projects with little to no input from it. Nutter is clearly trying to tell developers that those days are over.
"Over the years, for reasons of expediency, both political and economic, we've strayed from relying on the Planning Commission as the arbiter of planning expertise. I want to return the commission to its rightful position," Nutter's speech reads.
