Consumer Minute: Mortgages, layoffs, retirements

Mortgage News

Mortgage giant Freddie Mac has good news that should help more than 8,000 American homeowners.  A new policy will allow people to remain in foreclosed homes, temporarily, by renting them.

That will give them more time to find new housing and will keep the foreclosed properties occupied. Freddie Mac will be hiring property management for those homes.

Macy’s Layoffs

Macy’s has announced more layoffs.

The retailer is will cut 7,000 jobs, including unfilled positions.  Company stock is said to be off by half and Macy’s slashed its quarterly dividend to 5-cents from $13.25 cents.

It’s not clear how many of those jobs may be in our area.

GM Retirement

General Motors will offer early retirement, and buyout packages to all of its hourly employees who are represented by the United Auto Workers union.  The deals include $20,000 in cash, and a $25,000 voucher for buying a vehicle.

It’s an effort for the company to cut overhead costs, but it won’t be clear how much General Motors will save until they have a better idea of how many employees will accept the deals.

Wind Power

The United States now leads the world in wind power production.  That’s according to the Global Wind Energy Council.

Last year, the U.S. increased its wind power generating capacity by half—now producing 25 gigawatts of power.  That represents 20 percent of the world total. Germany had been number one in this category, until now.