In the News: Home Prices and a Training Grant

Today we have two stories to share from The Oregonian.

The first article reports that U.S. home prices rose by 8.3 percent from December 2011 to December 2012. That marks the highest year-to-year jump in home prices since May 2006. Real estate provider CoreLogic provided the stats, and cited a relatively low supply and increasing demand for homes as drivers behind the price increase.

Prices rose over the year in 46 states, including Oregon. Here, home prices rose 4.9 percent in December compared with a year earlier, but declined slightly (-0.5%) from the previous month. Most economists expect prices to keep rising in 2013.

The second story announces a $530,000 National Emergency Grant to fund career counseling and support services for 150 of the 350 workers laid off from the Siltronic plant in North Portland. The plant was the Munich-based company's only location in the U.S. The jobs lost in Portland were shifted back to Germany.

The training grant targets workers who face barriers to finding a new job, such as a lack of advanced education. The grant program will be housed in Portland's New Columbia WorkSource office.