New home sales dropped across the nation last month to a twelve year low, a negative sign of consumers’ reluctance to buy and tougher lending despite lower interest rates.
The Commerce Department on Friday reported a 9 percent drop in the sale of new homes in November.
Orlando chose to miss its own December 12th deadline for issuing bonds for the $480 million dollar new Orlando arena project. The delays is said to pay off in the end.
Due to the uncertainty in financial markets which could have increased the interest rate the city would ultimately have to pay investors had the City of Orlando kept to its original plan to issue the $335 million in bonds.
The much anticipated expansion of the Peabody Orlando is expected to break ground within the month according to the Peabody’s general manager Alan Villaverde.
The 1.2 million square-foot expansion project is estimated to cost more than $420 million, twice as much as was previously estimated.
The expansion will add a new 750 room guest tower, a new ballroom/meeting space, a 2400 car parking garage, pool, 15,000 square-foot spa, lounge and restaurant.
It looks as if Washington has developed a plan to freeze interest rates for up to five years for thousands of strapped American homeowners whose mortgages were scheduled to rise in the near future.
The unprecedented move is designed to shore up the ailing economy, which is slowing amid a downturn in consumer confidence, triggered by the stumbling housing market.
The program is the biggest attempt so far to deal with surging levels of foreclosures and mortgage defaults, which have accrued billions of dollars in losses for the stock market.
Lenders will not, however, be forced to join up to the proposal, which emerged from negotiations between the Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, and the beleaguered US mortgage industry.