Cars:
The local auto market continues to revive.
Hyundai, which already has a significant presence in the area, will take over a shuttered Chrysler Jeep dealership in the Folsom Automall that closed in 2009.
The new dealership will be owned by the same partnership that operates Sacramento Hyundai on Florin Road and Roseville Hyundai on Sunrise Avenue. In November, the group took the highly unusual step of opening a showroom in the Sacramento Downtown Plaza.
Home prices:
Houses in the Sacramento region now sell for about what they did in 2001. The entire real estate bubble has been erased, and it's not clear that we're close to the bottom. Foreclosures and short sales still dominate the market, putting downward pressure on prices.
The Sacramento Association of Realtors said the median resale price for a single-family home in Sacramento County and West Sacramento dropped to $169,900 in April – an 8.2 percent drop from April 2010. It was the ninth straight month without a year-over-year increase.
Jobs:
New applications for unemployment benefits nationwide dropped sharply in the week ended May 7, partly reversing a big jump the previous week.
The number of people filing claims fell by 44,000 to a seasonally adjusted 434,000.
In recent months, the claims number has gone up and down, making it hard to pin down a trend.
The national unemployment rate now stands at 9 percent. Sacramento's employment picture remains considerably bleaker. Our jobless rate of 12.7 percent is topped only by Riverside and Las Vegas among metro areas with more than a million residents.
Restaurants:
Yard House, a Southern California restaurant chain that boasts the "world's largest" selection of draft beers, said it will hire 275 people for its new location at the Fountains at Roseville.
The restaurant fills a major stand-alone building left empty when garden retailer Smith & Hawken closed. The upscale Fountains center, opened in 2008, is 96 percent occupied, according to its general manager.
It will be the first Sacramento-area location for Yard House.
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