American prospective homebuyers were relatively thin on the ground in the previous week, as the Mortgage Bankers Association weekly survey found that mortgage applications dipped during the second week of June.

This caused most mortgage loan interest rates to fall, with the rate for 30-year fixed-rate loans falling to 4.81 percent from 4.83 percent from the week before. The average rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, on the other hand, rose to 4.26 percent from its previous weekly level of 4.24.

Michael Fratantoni, the MBA’s vice president of research and economics, said that "purchase and refinance applications dropped this week, even after an adjustment for the Memorial Day holiday. Purchase applications are now 35 percent below their level of four weeks ago, as homebuyers have not yet returned to the market following the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit at the end of April."

Consumer advocacy blog Consumerist commented on the study’s findings, pointing out that the last time mortgage rates were this low, the Spice Girls were among the most popular musical acts in the world.

Across several fronts, the U.S. government has recently moved to increase its oversight of the debt consolidation industry, according to a recent report from USA Today. The newspaper reports that legislators, regulators and consumer advocates have all said that they are interested in helping to clean up the business sector.

Critics say that the practice of charging up-front fees for some debt consolidation services can actually make it harder for consumers to reduce debt by cutting into the amount of money they can put into paying down their obligations, USA Today reports. The Federal Trade Commission and New York Senator Charles Schumer have both expressed an interest in curbing this practice, according to the paper.

There were some success stories, however, from the industry as it is currently regulated included in the USA Today report, including one Texas woman whose unemployment-related credit card debts were eventually settled for roughly half of their outstanding balances.

Experts say that, as the economy continues to improve, fewer U.S. consumers will have need of such services. However, financially healthy Americans could help the recovery happen even faster.

The official Federal Reserve statistics for the month of April were released on Monday, showing that, while different types of consumer credit changed in different ways, the overall amount of available credit increased slightly over its April 2009 totals.

Non-revolving credit, including student loans, car loans and other closed-ended credit lines shot up by 7.1 percent in April 2010. By contrast, the report showed the revolving credit – mostly contained in credit cards and other types of re-usable credit – plummeted by a full 12 percent.

The overall gain mirrors recent positive indications that the economy is slowly recovering from the recent recession, but the volatile nature of consumer credit in the U.S. might mean that the recovery could be a lengthy and drawn-out process.

The positive news about consumer credit follows hard on the heels of similarly encouraging information about employment, as the Department of Labor recently announced that the nation’s unemployment rate had dropped to 9.7 from 9.9 percent. However, this was tempered slightly by the fact that much of the gain in jobs was concentrated in temporary Census workers.

While a slow but steady upturn in many economic indicators has painted a somewhat rosier picture of the future of the American economy, the Wall Street Journal reports that many U.S. consumers have been focusing on getting rid of debt rather than making new purchases.

This trend has slowed the re-growth of consumer spending, which is widely regarded as one of the most important bellwethers of a resurgent economy. The Journal says that "the Fed’s quarterly ‘flow of funds’ report, due out on Thursday, is likely to show the household sector’s debt level, which includes both consumer credit and mortgage loans, remained at about 20 percent of total assets in the first quarter."

The newspaper says that the recent news that consumer debt fell by $1 billion in April – the 17th consecutive month in which that figure has fallen – is in stark contrast to the behavior of this market sector over the 67-year history of the index.

Experts say, nevertheless, that the economy’s continued improvement will soon bring the looked-for growth in consumer spending.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the G-20 summit in a letter that American consumers can no longer be depended upon to act as a "sponge" for the entire world’s exports, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Geithner’s letter, according to the Journal, said that "given the broader shifts under way in the U.S. economy towards higher domestic savings, without further progress on rebalancing global demand, global growth rates will fall short of potential," implying that a fundamental shift has taken place in the outlook of the American consumer.

The letter is aimed in part at getting major exporters of consumer goods like Japan, China, and Germany to reduce their dependence on the U.S. market as a primary consumer of their products, the newspaper says.

Experts say that, if the U.S. economy is to recover the robust health it enjoyed prior to the housing crisis and consequent recession, a boost to consumer confidence is one of two requirements, along with a decrease in unemployment.