American consumers are growing more confident about the job market, companies are ordering more equipment and home prices are rising in most major cities. The latest batch of government data suggests that the economy is improving just as the holiday shopping season begins.
The year-end housing news is sobering: U.S. homes are expected to lose more than $681 billion in value in 2011. But there's an upside: That's 35% less than the $1.1 trillion lost in 2010, according to research from Zillow.
It's one thing to use Photoshop to make your waistline look slimmer in your snapshots. Many people also take a distorted view of their finances, fooling themselves about the health of their balance sheets. Here are some common self-deceptions.
If you're looking to score a great deal on a house, you may want to wait a bit longer: U.S. home prices dropped 3% in the first quarter, their sharpest quarter-over-quarter decline since late 2008, according to real estate tracking service Zillow, which now says prices won't begin to rebound until at least 2012.
Despite falling real estate prices, houses still cost almost twice as much as they did in 1975 when you adjust for inflation. Relative to average income, they're 40% higher. By many measures, houses are still unaffordable, which helps explain the current 15% vacancy rate.
How much is the White House worth? Online real estate database Zillow came up with $292,386,000 as of Jan. 18, that is down $15 million since the Obama family took up residence a year ago, and down another $24 million since George W. Bush's final year in office.
