Last week's economic news included construction spending and the CoreLogic Home Price Index for January. Reports for February included ADP Employment, Non-Farm Payrolls and national unemployment data.
Last week's news was relatively quiet with no data significant to real estate and mortgage lending released until Wednesday, when the federal government announced a $138 billion budget deficit for May.
The U.S. Department of Labor released its Non-Farm Payrolls and National Unemployment Rate reports Friday showing 175,000 jobs were added in May, which surpassed expectations of 164,000 new jobs and April's reading of 149,000 jobs added. The jobs added in May were largely from the private sector.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly Non-farm Payrolls and National Unemployment Rate for April last Friday. These two reports are collectively called the Jobs Report. 165,000 jobs were added in April, while the unemployment rate dropped from 7.60 percent in March to 7.50 percent in April.
Last week's economic news includes several factors that drove U.S. mortgage rates lower.
Mortgage rates and stock markets rose last week in response to a strong jobs report and lower national unemployment rate. The Dow Jones Index reached record levels last week.