By Dave Lucas
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-895644.mp3
Albany, NY – The crippled economy appears to be on the rebound, but experts are noticing signs that indicate any recovery may be further off than expected, locally and nationwide. Capital District Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports.
The Housing Market - Jobs - Wall Street - the traditional barometers of the economy - may need re-calibrating. If you're a consumer - you should be concerned - you're paying a dollar more to fill up your gas tank than a year ago at this time, with Capital Region gas prices hovering around the $3 gallon mark... thousands of New Yorkers are reaching or have reached the end of 99 weeks of unemployment benefits and remain jobless... and despite an upward trend, industry analysts like Johnson-Illington Advisors' Director of Business Development Abigail Doolittle wonder if the stock market may be headed for another fall.
This month, the federal home buyer tax credit will expire and experts say mortgage rates will rise ... the Federal Reserve recently ended its program of buying mortgage-backed securities, which have helped keep rates at historical lows. Concurrently, the Federal Housing Administration is reportedly beginning to tighten its mortgage guidelines. Paula Gaies, an associate broker with Weichert Realtors Northeast Group, notes the federal program wasn't the big catalyst the local market expected.
Whatever recovery we might be in will be affected by what happens after the federal programs are gone. Abigail Doolittle is concerned about the high unemployment rate, coupled with the rising price of gasoline: Crude oil prices have spiked past $86 a barrel. Gas is poised to go beyond $3 a gallon.
A new Associated Press Economy survey out today forecasts that jobs and home values will stay shaky well into 2011,and that any economic recovery will move slowly and fitfully this year and next. Three-fourths of the economists polled by AP believe the Federal Reserve will be forced to keep interest rates near zero until at least the final quarter of this year.