Government reports state that American businesses are relieving staff at an ever increasing pace, most recently paring 533,000 jobs in November 2008.
This massive one month decline marks the largest single-month decline since December 1974 and puts the year-to-date job losses at 1.9 million workers.
This sort of news is sometimes too hard to swallow. However, through it all, there is somewhat of a silver lining for Americans in all of this:
Every such piece of negative news about the US economy forces our Washington officials to take a harder look at passing new stimulus packages to relieve strained household budgets.
Federal Reserve Chairman “Uncle” Ben Bernanke is already leaning towards further Fed Funds Rate cuts to be called for as part of the Fed’s December 15 meet up. A new reduction would send”floating” interest rates on home equity credit lines and other revolving debt down a bit, thus alleviating some pressure on Winter Haven, Florida households.
It’s also important to note that this talk of a Fed Funds Rate reduction is tugging on the apron strings of the Fed’s promise to purchase $500 billion worth of mortgage-backed bonds. This move sent mortgage rates lower and signaled the official start of what some are referring to as a revitalized refinancing period.
Maybe we’ll see a return of Downpayment Assistance Programs (DPAs) as a part of the “urgent” action being called for on Capital Hill. (A big maybe – but would be a welcome one!) Of course, there hasn’t been much in the way of specificity regarding “what” that action will be, but I remain confident that even the good men and women on “Doonesbury Hill” are finally starting to see the need to boost consumer confidence by putting more money into household budgets here in Winter Haven and across the rest of the country.
I posted recently that the Officially-Sanctioned U.S. Collective Brain Trust just recently acknowledged that we are in fact in a verified recession – something of an understatement since we’ve BEEN in one since 2007! As such, Washington has started to polish up the Big Guns, and I believe we’ll see them firing soon.
Net – net: Thge job data we received today is sort of a non-factor for those looking to buy Florida real estate. Now, with markets expecting additional stimulus, mortgage rates are edging lower today with hopes of an economic rebound.
Source
Employers cut 533,000 jobs in Nov., most since 1974
Barbara Hagenbaugh
December 5, 2008, USA Today
I hope you found this post useful! As always, if you or anyone you know is in need of a local Florida mortgage loan originator, I’m your guy. Call me at 888-859-7418 or apply online for your Florida mortgage. We’ll keep you posted and let you know when it’s time to pull the trigger!
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It’s certainly absolutely great that the government supports the citizens but how can they suport enough if aperson loses a job, for example? I mean it’d be much better if they somehow changed the situation altogether.