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Sales of newly constructed homes rose unexpectedly in February, rebounding nearly 5% after sinking to the lowest level on record in January, according to a government report released Wednesday.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported that new home sales rose 4.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 337,000 in February from a revised 322,000 in January. It was the first increase since July, and comes after sales tumbled to an all-time low in the previous month.

Economists were expecting a sales rate of 300,000, according to consensus estimates compiled by Briefing.com.

While February purchases were up from January’s record low, the sales rate is still down more than 41% from February 2008, when sales were an estimated 572,000.

The report is "generally a good sign," said Andreas Carbacho-Burgos, an economist at Moody’s Economy.com. "But it’s definitely not enough to say that the housing market is starting to recover," he said.

Carbacho-Burgos noted that new home sales have recorded monthly increases several times over the past few years even as the overall trend in sales declined.

"This is only a single month’s worth of data," he said. "You need at least three months of increases before you can say the market is recovering."

The report also showed that the median sales price of new houses sold in February was $200,900, down 18% from $245,300 a year ago. That was the biggest year-over-year decline in history, according to real estate analysts at Weiss Research payday loans.

The estimated number of new homes for sale at the end of February was a seasonally adjusted 330,000. At the current sales pace, it would take more than a year to sell through that inventory, according to the report.

Wednesday’s report was the latest in a series of better-than-expected readings on the housing market. But many analysts remain wary of the prospects for a long-term recovery.

"The worst of the drop in sales is over but a sustained recovery…is a way off still," wrote Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, in a research note.

On Monday, the National Association of Realtors said that existing home sales rose 5.1% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.72 million units from a rate of 4.49 million in January.

Last week, the Commerce Department reported that initial construction of new homes surged 22% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 583,000, up from a revised 477,000 in January. It was the first time housing starts increased since June.

Meanwhile, a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association showed Wednesday that the number of Americans applying for home loans jumped 30% last week, driven mostly by applications to refinance existing loans.  

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General Motors announced Thursday that cost-cutting efforts had improved its cash position enough to allow it to get by without $2 billion in additional federal loans later this month.

GM (GM, Fortune 500), which has already received $13.4 billion in government loans, is not trimming its request for up to $16.6 billion in additional federal help through 2011, however.

But GM chief financial officer Ray Young said in a statement that "the $2 billion of funding previously requested for March would not be needed at this time."

The company also announced that members of the Canadian Auto Workers union have ratified a contract to cover about 10,000 hourly workers at its plants there. The union said 87% of its membership at GM voted for the contract changes.

GM did not have an estimate for how much money that will save the company.

The battered shares of GM gained more than 13% in mid-afternoon trading on the announcement, although shares are still down 90% from year-ago levels.

Detroit gets thrifty?

GM has taken several high-profile steps to save money, such as not advertising during this year’s Super Bowl and getting rid of corporate jets. GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson added that a wide range of smaller moves have helped the company conserve cash.

But he added that sales have yet to improve significantly since GM filed its request for more help last month. GM’s U.S. sales are down 51% in January and February compared to the first two months of last year. Industrywide U.S. sales are down 39% during the same period.

GM and rival Chrysler LLC have both asked for additional loans to get them through the current sales slump. That request has yet to be approved by the Treasury Department.

The government is looking at the two companies’ turnaround plans and current sales trends to decide whether they can be viable businesses for the long-term payday advance.

But GM’s own auditing firm issued a statement last week saying there was "substantial doubt" about its ability to remain in business without additional federal loans and an improvement in sales.

GM is seeking $9 billion in loans sometime later this year, according to statements made to investors when it reported a fourth quarter loss of $9.6 billion late last month.

The company also said at that time that it anticipated that most of the cash it will burn this year will take place in the first quarter .GM indicated it needs between $11 billion and $13 billion in cash to continue operations.

The first loan of $4 billion on Dec. 31 allowed the company to end the year with $14 billion in cash on hand. It has received the additional $9.4 billion in government loans since then.

Chrysler, which has already received $4 billion from the government, asked for an additional $5 billion last month. The company said in its turnaround plan that it would need the money by March 17 or else it would run out of cash and have to start the process of shutting down its business.

Chrysler spokesman Stuart Schorr said Thursday there had been no change in the company’s timetable for when more loans would be needed.

The other member of Detroit’s Big Three, Ford Motor (F, Fortune 500), has a better cash position than its rivals and has so far not needed federal loans. But Ford has asked for a $9 billion line of credit in case sales continue to be worse than expected or if major suppliers have to halt operations. 

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Spot Runner once seemed an unbeatable value proposition for entrepreneurs seeking to maximize their marketing budgets. Launched in 2006, the Los Angeles company helps small businesses create video ads for as little as $499 and target them by zip code on local TV.

For a while Spot Runner thrived as more Main Street businesses abandoned the Yellow Pages in favor of broadcast and new-media advertising. (Print revenue for the old yellow books has been dropping steadily, from $15.2 billion in 2005 to $12.4 billion in 2008, according to market research firm Borrell Associates.) Spot Runner raised a total of $111 million in investment capital from companies such as CBS, WPP and Grupo Televisa. In early 2008, Spot Runner expanded into search-engine marketing, hoping to serve small businesses hungry for targeted ads on the Web empire payday loans.

Then came the credit crunch. "Everybody’s getting hit hard, particularly local businesses," says Spot Runner president John Gentry.

Spot Runner laid off 165 employees late last year, reducing its staff to around 200. Instead of working directly with individual entrepreneurs, the company has recently concentrated on deals with national small business networks such as Century 21, the real estate chain, and Stuller Inc., a jewelry manufacturer and distributor that serves nearly 40,000 retailers.

One reason for tapping the networks: Without a Yellow Pages-size sales force, it’s hard to reach individual small business owners.  

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Falling interest rates are fueling a mortgage refinance frenzy as homeowners rush to reduce their housing payments.

The average rate for a 30-year, fixed mortgage dropped to 5.08% last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, more than a full point lower than just a month ago.

Mortgage applications were up a whopping 48% last week, according to the MBA and more than 80% were from homeowners looking to lower housing costs.

"It’s snowing loans," said Steve Habetz, a Connecticut mortgage broker, "and they’re all refis."

Among those were Elizabeth Mayer and Michael Keohane, who bought their Manhattan condo just a little over a year ago, financing $220,000 of the purchase price with a 30-year, fixed rate loan of 6.5%. That was affordable, with monthly payments of less than $1,400. But their new 5.25% loan will lower their payment to about $1,215, saving about $175 a month.

"It was a nice holiday gift," said Mayer.

With savings like that, it’s no wonder that homeowners are coming out of the woodwork. And mortgage brokers are beating the drums too, advising their clients to let the good times roll.

Mayer said her mortgage broker had kept her informed of interest rate declines ever since she originally purchased her home. "He’s been encouraging whenever opportunities arose," she said. "We missed one opportunity last spring when we just weren’t able to act on it."

The broker made sure they didn’t miss this chance. "He e-mailed me [about it] from South Africa and called when he got back," said Mayer.

Anyone with high adjustable-rate loans. Folks in this group should try to get into a low fixed rate if they can. Not only will they lower their payments immediately but it would also eliminate the possibility of future increases.

Those who would lower their rate by a percentage point or more. Borrowers who already have a reasonable fixed rate shouldn’t jump into a new loan every time rates inch down, according to Orawin Velz, an economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association.

"You should have at least a percentage point difference before you even think about it," Velz said. "If you have a 6.5% loan right now, it would be a great time to refi."

Waiting for a substantial rate decrease makes sense because getting a new mortgage incurs some expenses. There are the costs of a new appraisal and origination and application fees payday loans. Plus, a title search and title insurance are usually required.

All those costs, which can add up to $2,000 or $3,000 or more for a typical $200,000 loan, are often rolled back into the mortgage, increasing the principal upon which the interest rates are applied. If that goes up so much that it offsets the interest rate drop, it doesn’t make sense to refi.

Those who are planning to stay in their homes for a while. The increased balances usually take a year or two to be wiped out by lower monthly payments, so anyone planning to sell the home during the next few years probably should not refinance, unless the difference in interest rates is very substantial.

The actual rate borrowers get depends, just as with purchase mortgages, on credit scores, income and assets and the value of the home.

"If you have a high credit score and your equity is good, it’s like a vanilla cream puff," said Velz. "You’re going to get a great rate."

Borrowers with significant equity in their homes. Many homeowners have had much of their home values erased in the post-bubble bust, eliminating much or all of their home equity - the difference between the value of the home and the amount owed on the mortgage.

If a refi borrower’s home equity has fallen below 20% of the total appraised home value, the borrower will likely have to purchase private mortgage insurance. The insurance adds a point or two to the monthly mortgage costs, which turns a 5% loan into a 6% or 7% loan, erasing any advantage of refinancing.

"That’s the biggest hurdle for refinancing right now," said Velz.

Borrowers who don’t think rates will decline much further. Everyone considering refis has to decide whether to wait for interest rates to go even lower, which the Mortgage Bankers Association has been forecasting.

That’s only a prediction, though, not a certainty. Rates could turn higher instead.

Borrowers must weigh the advantages of gambling on rates turning around or locking in savings at the present very low rates.

All news is bad news in real estate right now. Have you recently bought a house anyway? Send your story and photos to realstories@cnnmoney.com and you could be featured in an upcoming article.  

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India's inflation unexpectedly slowed to a five-month low, giving the central bank room to reduce borrowing costs to shore up a slowing economy. Bonds rose.

Wholesale prices rose 8.9 percent in the week to Nov. 8 from a year earlier after gaining 8.98 percent in the previous week, the commerce ministry said in New Delhi today. That was less than the median forecast of 9 percent in a Bloomberg News survey of 13 economists. The inflation rate has dropped from a 16-year high of 12.91 percent in the week to Aug. 2.

The Reserve Bank of India has scope to cut borrowing costs further as inflation approaches a level “we can live with,'' Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said in a Nov. 18 interview. Growth in India's $1.2 trillion economy is weakening as a simultaneous recession in the U.S., Europe and Japan crimp demand for the nation's exports.

“The slowdown in inflation gives a great deal of comfort to the Reserve Bank to move ahead in cutting interest rates and to give a push to the growth momentum,'' said Shubhada Rao, an economist at YES Bank Ltd. in Mumbai. “There is a clear shift in focus.''

Bonds extended gains after the inflation report. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note fell to 7.23 percent, the lowest since January 2006, from 7.25 percent earlier. The price rose 1.3 per 100 rupee face amount to 106.92.

`Constant Vigil'

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Nov. 17 reviewed India's “liquidity situation'' in a meeting attended by central bank Governor Duvvuri Subbarao and “advised him to keep a very close and constant vigil over the situation and act as appropriate,'' Chidabmaram said cash advance in one hour.

The central bank has cut its benchmark lending rate twice in the past month, lowering it to 7.5 percent from a seven-year high of 9 percent. It also pared the amount lenders must set aside as reserves to cover deposits by 3.5 percentage points in a month, freeing up as much as 1.4 trillion rupees ($29.5 billion) in cash to ease lending.

The wholesale price index fell in the week to Nov. 8 because of a decline in the prices of fuel products such as jet fuel, furnace oil and naphtha. The oil index fell after Indian oil companies including Indian Oil Corp., the nation's largest refiner, cut the price of jet fuel by 4 percent.

The index of manufactured products that includes cooking oil and steel products, with a 63.7 percent weighting in the inflation basket, dropped to about 1 percent in the week, today's report showed.

Declining oil and commodity prices are cooling inflation across Asia, providing policy makers with scope to reduce borrowing costs to stimulate growth. Crude oil have fallen by 64 percent after climbing above $147 a barrel for the first time in July, while corn and wheat prices are also down by more than half from records reached earlier this year.

Today's inflation rate may be revised in two months, after the government receives additional price data. The commerce ministry increased the inflation rate for the week ended Sept. 13 to 12.42 percent from 12.14 percent.

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Belgium and Luxembourg raced to find a buyer for troubled financial group Fortis (FOR.BR: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) before markets opened on Monday and an industry source said BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) was negotiating for control.

In a second weekend of crisis talks, Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme told broadcasters on Sunday he hoped to keep the Belgian and Luxembourg operations of the group together after the Dutch nationalized most of Fortis’s Dutch units on Friday.

“There are contacts with private groups, several private groups. We are not going to decide in this situation with our backs to the wall,” he said. “The only thing certain is that we are going to send a clear and strong signal to the markets before they open tomorrow.

An industry source close to the situation confirmed reports in several Belgian media that BNP Paribas was negotiating to take up to 80 percent of Fortis banks in both countries, but said nothing had been agreed yet (fast cash).

Belgium and Luxembourg, which took 49 percent stakes in the Fortis banks in their countries last Sunday, would keep a 20 percent stake in each. BNP declined comment.

Luxembourg Budget Minister Luc Frieden told RTL television the governments were close to a solution for Fortis involving one of the Europe’s most solid banks.

“We are very close to an agreement for a clever combination of a strong state, taking responsibility in the bank, and one of the biggest international banking groups,” Frieden said.

He declined to name the group but said it would involve a public-private partnership in which the state would keep a veto right over strategic decisions. 

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China may cut interest rates again, ease limits on bank lending and boost spending to spur economic growth after lowering borrowing costs for the first time in six years.

“Policy makers will consider further interest-rate cuts in the coming month, in conjunction with a more proactive fiscal policy,'' said Jing Ulrich, chairwoman of China equities at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Hong Kong. The central bank yesterday reduced the one-year lending rate and lowered the proportion of deposits that the nation's smaller banks must set aside.

The slowest inflation in 14 months gave China room to lower borrowing costs and protect jobs as the outlook for exports dims and the credit crisis deepens. The rate cut came as stock markets slumped globally after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for bankruptcy and Bank of America Corp. agreed to buy Merrill Lynch & Co. for $50 billion.

“A gradual easing cycle has probably begun,'' said Alec Young, an international equity strategist at Standard & Poor's in New York. “The focus is no longer on inflation and is more on China's growth. The rest of the world is flirting with a recession and China's growth is slowing too.''

The People's Bank of China reduced the one-year lending rate to 7.20 percent from 7.47 percent, effective today. It lowered the reserve-requirement ratio for smaller banks to 16.5 percent from 17.5 percent.

`Important Problems'

The rate cut is “to help solve important problems in our economy for its continued stable and fast development,'' the central bank said in a statement on its Web site yesterday, when markets were closed for a holiday.

In July, the central bank reduced restrictions on how much banks can lend by raising 2008 loan quotas for national banks by 5 percent and regional lenders by 10 percent, according to reports by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., BNP Paribas SA, and China Merchants Bank Co.

It's likely those quotas, the main constraint on borrowers, will be eased again, said Mark Williams, a London- based economist with Capital Economics Ltd. The rate cut will have a limited impact on the economy because bank lending financed just 15 percent of fixed investment last year, Williams said.

The Shanghai Composite Index of stocks has fallen 60 percent this year, closing on Sept. 12 at 2,079.67, on concern that measures to tame inflation will erode company profits.

Stock Market's Drop

It's “suspicious'' that the central bank acted when the index seemed set to drop below 2,000, Williams said, adding that some people thought that level “was a floor at which the government would intervene to shore up the market.''

China last week released data indicating that the economy has slowed no fax payday loans.

Inflation cooled to 4.9 percent in August, export growth slowed and industrial production expanded by the least in six years. China's economy expanded 10.1 percent in the three months to June 30 from a year earlier, the fourth straight quarter of slower growth.

The weakness in China's asset markets is not just in stocks. Property could be headed for a “meltdown'' as home prices and sales decline, Morgan Stanley said Sept. 12.

“This is the beginning of an easing cycle in China,'' said Darius Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist at CFC Seymour Ltd. in Hong Kong.

China has already slowed gains by the yuan against the dollar to protect jobs at exporters of shoes, toys and clothes and raised export-tax rebates for garments and textiles.

Infrastructure Spending

Infrastructure spending is a possible tool for stimulating economic growth. Officials are working on a plan for as much as 400 billion yuan ($58 billion) of spending and tax cuts, according to economists and reports in domestic news media.

China's central bank pushed the reserve requirement for lenders to a record 17.5 percent in June. The biggest banks are excluded from the reduction. Those exempted are: Bank of China Ltd., Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank Corp., Bank of Communications Co. and Postal Savings Bank of China.

The requirement for smaller banks drops by 1 percentage point from Sept. 25. In areas affected by the Sichuan earthquake, the reduction is 2 percentage points.

The central bank left the key deposit rate unchanged at 4.14 percent, narrowing banks' margins on loans.

Zhu Baoliang, the chief economist at the State Information Center, a government research agency, said August's economic data probably prompted yesterday's moves, rather than events in the U.S.

In the U.S., banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. formed a $70 billion fund to ensure market liquidity as Lehman filed for bankruptcy and Bank of America Corp. agreed to acquire Merrill. The Federal Reserve may reduce the benchmark interest rate today to 1.75 percent from 2 percent, according to the futures market.

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Acknowledging that nonprofits are not immune to these more challenging economic times, the United Way Capital Area said Friday it has laid off about 10 percent of its more than 70 employees.

The Austin nonprofit says it was forced to make cut the seven employees because of the slumping economy’s effect on its budget.

“We are tightening our budget belt on the operations side to avoid impacting our agency grant commitments,” says David Balch, president of United Way Capital Area. “We greatly regret the loss of valuable staff and thank them for being part of our family here, and will do all that we can to assist our colleagues in finding other positions.”

The nonprofit says it’s offering severance pay and associated benefits to the employees that have been laid off.

United Way also said Friday that its grants for upcoming 2008-2009 fiscal year will total $3.9 million to 36 Central Texas nonprofits, up from $3.4 million this year online cash advance. The group says it wants to “assure the community that our proposed investment … is paramount.”

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Southend Building Products Inc. in Charlotte has promoted Paul Atkinson to chief executive, succeeding company founder Will Dellinger.

Atkinson most recently was director of sales.

“Paul has helped grow Southend Building Products into the company that I envisioned when I started it in 2001,” Dellinger says. He notes the company’s sales in the first half of the year were up 27 percent from a year earlier. The business declines to disclose revenue figures.

Atkinson will continue to lead the company’s sales operations.

Southend Building specializes in reclaimed and green building materials how to get a free credit report. The company focuses on finding old mills and factories and extracting building materials for resale. The products it sells include lumber, flooring and antique bricks. Southend Building, based at 2130 S. Tryon St., has 10 employees.

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Intel Corp. is expected to release details Monday about a new chip aimed at the gaming market dominated by Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) says the technology, code-named Larrabee, will be available in late 2009 or in 2010.

Where Intel now offers quad-core processors and plans to offer eight-core processors based on its Nehalem architecture, Larrabee is expected to have 12 to 48 such calculating engines.

Santa Clara-based Nvidia (Nasdaq:NVID) sells a chip with 240 processors. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD (NYSE:AMD) has one with 800 processors.

Intel, which has major operations in Chandler, is revealing information about its new chip just ahead of next week’s Siggraph 2008 show, which will bring an estimated 30,000 computer graphics and interactive technology professionals to Los Angeles from six continents payday loans in 1 hour.