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Consumers facing debt consolidation and hoping for a continued economic recovery into the summer may be disappointed by new data released by the Conference Board on Thursday.

According to the board’s latest information, their Leading Economic Index underwent a 0.1 percent increase throughout February.

The largest contributors to the increase being boosts in the spread of interest rates, real money supply, the index of supplier deliveries, and manufacturers’ new orders for consumer goods and materials.

Negative contributors to the index – which despite the increase, grew a lower rate than the 0.3 and 1.2 percent boosts seen the last two month – were declines in average weekly hours in manufacturing and stock prices.

With the rate increase in decline, the index indicated that the 11 consecutive months in which a rise has been seen may be in jeopardy and spell a slowed recovery on the horizon.

"The indicators point to a slow recovery this summer. Going forward, the big question remains the strength of demand, Ken Goldstein, an economist at The Conference Board. "Without increased consumer demand, job growth will likely be minimal over the next few months. "

One week after declines that would have led to more ideal refinancing rates for homeowners looking to consolidate debt, the second week of March did not yield the same results for most mortgage types.

According to thelatest Zillow Mortgage Rate Ticker for the week ending March 16, the average interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased by 0.02 percentage point to hit 4.78 percent. The week prior, the average rate had seen a 0.04 percentage point decline to begin March.

The rate for 15-year FRMs fared better for the week, shedding 0.02 percentage points for the week before settling at 4.22 percent. The decline doubled the 0.01 percentage point decrease than the average rate had seen one week earlier.

Following a sizable decline of 0.1 percentage points last week, the average rate for 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgages did not even follow up with another decline. The average interest rate instead shot up by 0.05 percentage points to hit 3.52 percent for the week.

Perhaps deterred by the mixed-week seen by the different mortgage rates, fewer consumers took out mortgage requests as their volume fell by 4 percent compared to the week prior. Like last week, purchase loans saw the majority of requests, garnering 66 percent of the request volume.

Mortgage modifications through the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program are continuing to gain steam as a viable means to consolidate debt, as more homeowners stepped up and got involved with some form of a modification on February.

According to the latest Making Home Affordable report for February, the number of permanent mortgage modifications increased 45 percent during the month as now more than 170,000 homeowners have now received permanent modifications.

Additionally, 91,800 modifications are currently in the final stages of becoming permanent, have been approved by servicers, and only require the homeowner’s signature.

Of those modifications, Bank of America seems to be leading the way as it has been the source of more than 500,000 HAMP and non-HAMP modifications since January 2008.

In February, the banking institution saw the number of its modifications that became permanent increase to 20,666, almost 8,000 more than the 12,761 seen one month earlier.

"We are in a position to show strong results in completion of permanent HAMP modifications as we move into spring," said Jack Schakett, a loss mitigation strategies executive for Bank of America Home Loans. "We have a strong pipeline of modifications in the trial payment period, under review for conversion to permanent status, and out for final signature."

Homeowners looking to save some money or consolidate debt received another week of favorable rates from the latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey released by Freddie Mac on Thursday.

According to the survey 30-year fixed-rate mortgage saw their average interest rate drop 0.02 percentage points to 4.95 percent for the week ending March 11. While a decline, it failed to match the 0.08 percentage point decline one week earlier that dropped it below 5 percent.

The average interest rate for 15-year FRMs declined for the week as well, shedding 0.01 percentage points to 4.32 percent. The average rate had also enjoyed a larger 0.07 percentage point decline the week prior.

"During a light week of mixed economic reports, mortgage rates eased somewhat," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s vice president and chief economist. "Pending existing home sales fell 7.6 percent in January, well below the market consensus of a 1 percent gain. Meanwhile, the economy lost only 36,000 jobs in February, fewer than market forecasts, and the unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent."

The average interest rate for 5-year adjustable-rate mortgages were the only mortgage type to outdo its previous week, shedding 0.06 percentage points to hit 4.05 percent and outpace the 0.05 percentage point decline the week prior.

Improved debt consolidation and money management to avoid falling into foreclosure on one’s home seems to be paying off slightly, as short term foreclosure figures improved in February while longer-term ones continued to struggle.

According to RealtyTrac, the number of foreclosure filings -which include default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions – hit 308,524 for February.

While the figure represented a 2 percent decline from January’s figures, it also was 6 percent higher than the one taken in February 2009.

"The 6 percent year-over-year increase we saw in February was the smallest annual increase we’ve seen since January 2006, when we began calculating year-over-year increases, but it still marked the 50th consecutive month of year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity," said James J. Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac. "This leveling of the foreclosure trend is not necessarily evidence that fewer homeowners are in distress and at risk for foreclosure, but rather that foreclosure prevention programs, legislation and other processing delays are in effect capping monthly foreclosure activity."

The survey also found that the six states with the highest foreclosure rates accounted for more than 60 percent of the national rate. For the 30th straight month – and despite a 7 percent decline for the month – Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate yet again with one in every 163 housing units receiving a filling.

Workers holding out for a new job as they continued to consolidate debt saw the unemployment rate remain unchanged into February, according to the latest Employment Situation report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

According to the survey, total nonfarm payroll employment remained mostly stable, only decreasing by 36,000 to keep the number of unemployed persons at 14.9 million and the unemployment rate at 9.7 percent for the second straight month.

Since the beginning of the recession in December 2007, payroll employment has dropped by 8.4 million.

Employment in the construction (-64,000) and information (-18,000) industries saw the notable declines for the month. However, they were offset somewhat by gains in the temporary help service industry, which added 48,000 jobs.

The number of Americans working part-time for economic reasons also increased by 500,000 during the month to hit 8.8 million.

The BLS noted that winter weather in parts of the country could have thrown off some payroll employment and hours data that was collected, due to the fact that newly unemployed workers staying home because of bad weather may not have been counted. However,it added that the effect of the storms on the data was not yet known.

People looking for work as they consolidate debt and save money to remain above water financially will likely be pleased by new data from Manpower Inc. demonstrating a slight increase in payroll that are expected during the second quarter of 2010.

Manpower’s Employment Outlook Survey for Q2 2010 released on Tuesday found that 16 percent of the 18,000 employers surveyed across the country expected to increase their staff levels during the quarter while only 8 percent expect a decrease. The results netted a positive employment outlook of 8 percent, which was lowered to 5 percent when seasonally adjusted.

Additionally, 73 percent of employers said they were planning on keeping their staffing levels stable through the second quarter, a record high figure for the survey.

"U.S. hiring activity is still in neutral, but revving toward first gear," said Jonas Prising, Manpower’s president of the Americas. "It’s moving in the right direction, but it will take some time, with no major speed bumps, before it can accelerate."

Of the 13 employment sectors looked at by Manpower for the survey, 12 of them reported positive outlooks, with the leisure and hospitality industry expecting the most significant gains (17 percent) in payroll for the quarter. Government employers were the only sector to anticipate a slight decline of 1 percent to their payrolls.

Initial unemployment claims continued to decline as February came to a close, providing hope to jobless workers in the midst of debt consolidation who are looking for a sign the struggling housing market may slowly be righting itself.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s latest Employment Insurance Weekly Claims Report released on Thursday, initial unemployment claims stood at 469,000 for the week ending February 27, 29,000 fewer than there were one week earlier. The 4-week moving average of initial claims also dipped slightly to 470,750, a decline of 3,500.

Using the most recent data available, the survey also found that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate stood at 3.5 percent for the week ending February 20, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week’s revised rate.

Because of that, the survey also found that the number of jobless workers receiving unemployment during same the week stood at 4.5 million, a decrease of 134,000 from the previous week’s revised figure.

Additionally, the survey found that during the week ending February 20, only seven states saw an increase in their initial claims, with New Jersey leading the way with 4,879 new claims that were attributed to a backlog caused by weather-related office closings and a statewide furlough day.

Conversely, 12 states saw a decrease in claims of more than 1,000, with California leading the way with 12,000 fewer declines due to decreases layoffs in the service industry.

Consumers looking to consolidate debt who live in Pennsylvania may benefit from tax cuts being proposed by Governor Edward Rendell to close an upcoming budget deficit.

The proposed reductions would lower the state sales tax rate from 6 to 4 percent in all areas except Allegheny County, which would see its rate lowered to 4.7 percent. The sales tax in Philadelphia, which currently sits at 8 percent, would be lowered to 5.3 percent as well.

Rendell rationalized the declines as a means to lower costs for consumers who are consolidating debt and looking to buy a new vehicle. The lower rates would result in nearly $500 in taxes that could be saved by consumers.

"My proposal lowers our sales tax rate by a third, increases the fairness of our business and sales tax systems and helps our state avoid the financial crisis that we know is only 18 months away," Governor Rendell said. "We will eliminate special interest exemptions on items except necessities like food, clothing and medications, and increase fairness because every item not subject to the sales tax makes the tax on everything else far too high."

Revenue collected from sales generated by the lower taxes would be used to cover the estimated $2.3 billion budget deficit the state expects to have in 2011 once Rendell leaves office.