Homeownership rate hits lowest point in 22 years

It’s becoming a familiar pattern, one that’s not good news for home sellers and builders.

The share of people who owned a home at the end of March slipped again, taking the nation’s homeownership rate down to 63.7 percent, the lowest it’s been in 22 years, the Census Bureau said Tuesday.

Not surprisingly, the share of rental units that were vacant at the end of the quarter also fell year-over-year.

While the homeownership rate isn’t much different from the first-quarter rate of 64 percent, after adjusting for seasonality, according to bureau economists, it is a noticeable decline from the 64.8 percent homeownership rate recorded in 2014’s first quarter and is the lowest measurement since the first quarter of 1993.

Target eliminated payouts after failed Canada expansion

Target Corp. eliminated some stock payouts normally given to top executives as penalty for the company’s failed expansion in Canada, a regulatory filing showed Monday.

The move dented the portfolios of Target’s leaders since they won’t have shares they might have otherwise received as part of their 2014 compensation. Their base pay wasn’t affected by the move, and most of the executives took home more in salary and bonuses last year than in 2013.

New CEO Brian Cornell, who joined the Minneapolis-based retailer in August, took home $809,000 in base salary, bonuses and other compensation. That does not include $27 million in stock awards Target gave him.

Leaked revenue report pushes Twitter’s stock down

Twitter remorse has become a commonplace problem in the modern age; it seems like, every day, there’s a company that regrets something hastily shared on the social networking site. Tuesday, that company was Twitter.

Twitter shares fell dramatically Tuesday afternoon when its first quarter earnings report was posted early and was shared on Twitter by a financial intelligence firm, Selerity. Twitter had planned to release the report, which showed it badly missed revenue expectations, after the markets closed.

Shares plunged more than 18 percent to about $42 a share on the news. Trading was briefly halted, at Twitter’s request.

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