Hurricane job losses surpass 500,000; home sales rebound

October 28, 2005

WASHINGTON - Job losses from hurricanes Katrina and Rita have passed the half-million mark, with further increases to come from Wilma.

Meanwhile, new home prices declined in September, a possible indication that rising interest rates are starting to cool off the red-hot housing market.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that an additional 24,000 workers who lost jobs because of Katrina, which hit Aug. 29, and Rita, which struck Sept. 24, applied for unemployment benefits last week. That pushed the total for the past eight weeks to 502,000 hurricane-related claims.

The 24,000 hurricane-related jobless claims last week were included in total jobless claims of 328,000. The figure was down from 356,000 applications for the week ended Oct. 15.

In other economic news, sales of new homes rebounded in September after a huge decline in August. But the median price of new homes sold last month fell by 5.7 percent.

Freddie Mac said Thursday that its nationwide survey showed all types of mortgages were up this week, with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rising to 6.15 percent, compared with 6.10 percent last week and the highest level in 15 months.

The Commerce report showed that new home sales climbed by 2.1 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.22 million units, but the median price fell 5.7 percent from the August level to $215,700.