CoreLogic reports that distressed sales, which include real estate owned properties and short sales, made up 9.3% of total home sales in August. That figure is down 2.3% from August 2014 and down 0.4% from July 2015. In addition, the 9.3% share is well below the peak of 32.4% set back at the height of the Great Recession in January 2009. Before the peak, distressed sales were about 2% on average.Staffing firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reports that U.S. companies showed overall layoffs fell 14% in October from September, though oil industry cuts jumped to a six-month high. Layoffs totaled 50,504 of which 14,000 of those layoffs were related to the oil industry. In the retail sector, layoff announcements are up 67% from 38,948 in 2014 to 64,983, as of last month. "Despite the surge in job cuts across several sectors, it is hardly time to panic. While falling oil prices are impacting the bottom lines of companies in the energy and industrial goods sectors, they are helping many other employers, such as those in transportation and plastics manufacturing," said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.Mortgage rates rose in the latest survey ahead of a possible interest hike in December. Freddie Mac reported on Thursday that the average 30-year fixed-rate conventional mortgage ($417,000 or less) rose to 3.87% with an average 0.6 in points and fees this week, up from 3.76% last week. Mortgage rates continue to hover just above the all-time lows. To put it into perspective, since 1971, the highest rates were seen in October 1981 (18.45%) with a low (3.35%) seen at the end of 2012.Jesse Stroup California Mortgage Professional www.CaliforniaHomeLoanLender.comwww.JesseStroup.comPacific Funding GroupNMLS# 6229Licensed by the Department of Business Oversight under the California Residential Mortgage Lending Act. NMLS # 930622 | NMLS # 6229