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In December 2008, improvements in home affordability and low mortgage rates contributed to a 7% year-over-year increase in home sales in the 25 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) tracked by Radar Logic Incorporated. According to the December 2008 RPXTM Monthly Housing Market Report, transactions increased in 14 of the 25 MSAs, with the largest increase in metropolitan areas where sales of foreclosed homes constitute a significant share of total transactions, particularly Las Vegas, Phoenix and the five California MSAs covered by the report.

Collapsing oil prices have pulled oil rich countries into the global property malaise with capital values falling in emerging nations for the first time in the survey's history, says RICS Global Property Survey.

Weak U.S. housing markets and rising unemployment at the state level are leading indicators of deteriorating commercial property loan performance, according to Fitch Ratings. As a result, Fitch expects commercial properties in the most impacted states to continue to face greater cash flow stress until the housing market and unemployment begin to show signs of recovery.

The Discover U.S. Spending Monitor reached an all-time low in February, falling more than two points to 75.7 (based out of 100). The decline reflects record-low readings for the Monitor’s two main components: economic confidence and spending intentions. More than 67 percent of the 13,000 adults surveyed in February gave the economy a poor rating and for the ninth consecutive month consumers lowered their spending intentions.

Issues related to the economic downturn dominate the concerns of corporate giving officers polled in a study by The Conference Board released on the philanthropy plans of major U.S. companies.

This year, according to the annual survey by BDO Seidman, LLP, one of the nation’s leading accounting and consulting organizations, nearly two-thirds (62%) of chief financial officers (CFOs) at leading U.S. technology businesses say that their companies outsource services or manufacturing. However, the survey results point to a likely decline in international outsourcing in 2009: twenty-two percent say the United States is the outsourcing destination they are most likely to consider in 2009, compared to sixteen percent for China and thirteen percent for India. Another nineteen percent report no interest in additional outsourcing.

Borrower defaults in U.S credit card and auto loan ABS transactions will continue to increase in the coming months as the unemployment rate accelerates at levels not seen since the 1973 recession, says Fitch Ratings.

HOPE NOW, the private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, non-profit counselors, and investors that has been working aggressively to prevent foreclosures and keep homeowners in their homes, announced that its members and the larger mortgage lending industry modified 123,000 mortgages in January 2009.

Manufacturing labor productivity increased in 2007 in 14 of the 17 economies compared by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Republic of Korea and Taiwan had the largest productivity increases of 8.7 percent each. The United States productivity increase of 4.7 percent was the fourth largest. Singapore, included for the first time in these comparisons, had the steepest decline (-4.0 percent) of the three economies where productivity declined.

TransUnion.com released the results of its analysis of trends in the mortgage industry for the fourth quarter of 2008 and the associated impact on the U.S. consumer. Mortgage loan delinquency (ratio of borrowers 60 or more days past due) increased for the eighth straight quarter, hitting a national average high of 4.58 percent for the fourth quarter of 2008.