Housing Finance Drop

With the ending of govt stimulus figures yesterday have shown that housing finance has dropped for the fifth straight month. There is still however good strength is house prices but this may falter soon.

Loans to first home buyers has dropped 1.8% since last month. The value has fallen from more than $17 billion a month in the middle of last month to a little over $14 billion in February.

(From SMH)
US economy 'remains in recession'

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) said its business cycle-dating committee met Thursday to review the most recent data for all indicators relevant to deciding whether there was an end to the recession that began in December 2007.

"Although most indicators have turned up, the committee decided that the determination of the trough date on the basis of current data would be premature," the NBER, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said in a statement.