Bloomberg The U.S. consumer might be the engine of global growth — just not the roaring V12 it used to be. From the fourth quarter of 2003 through 2006, amid the real estate bubble, personal consumption expenditures grew at an average annual clip of 3.5 percent. Since the S&P/Case-Shiller Composite 20-City Home Price Index bottomed out in March 2012, ...

  Bloomberg It’s a good time to be a tenant in Singapore. Rentals across the city-state’s home, office and retail properties dropped in the quarter ended March as an oversupply and weak demand dragged down prices sought by landlords. Singapore’s home rental index dropped 1.3 percent in the three months ended March 31 from the previous quarter, data from the ...

  Bloomberg Home sales in New York’s Hamptons fell to the lowest level in three years as would-be buyers of beachside mansions stayed on the sidelines during a turbulent first quarter on Wall Street. Purchases in the Long Island resort towns, a second-home market popular with financiers and celebrities, totaled 437 in the three months through March, down 19 percent ...