The U.S. recovery that began last year will be stronger than previously estimated, according to a survey by the National Association for Business Economics (NABE). Bloomberg reported that the economy will expand 3.2 percent this year and next, according to the poll, which was taken from April 27 to May 7. The rebound from the worst recession since the 1930s started in June 2009, the survey showed. The panel responsible for deciding when U.S. recessions begin and end said last month it was too soon to declare an end to the slump that began in December 2007.

Dennis Albaugh, president and CEO of Albaugh Inc., received the 2010 Outstanding Alumni award from the American Association of Community Colleges during the organization’s annual convention in Seattle. Albaugh graduated in 1972 from Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC). He went from selling products out of the trunk of his car to owning a billion-dollar agricultural chemicals company. DMACC President Rob Denson, Sen. Charles Grassley, Polk County Supervisor E.J. Giovannetti and Ankeny Mayor Steve Van Oort joined Albaugh at the event.

Sparkplug Communications, a provider of wireless business broadband voice and data services, announced last Friday that it will expand its wireless broadband presence in Arizona through the acquisition of certain business assets from MetroBridge Networks, a Vancouver, B.C.-based public company. Sparkplug merged in July 2006 with West Des Moines-based Prairie iNet LLC and Telespectra LLC of Scottsdale, Ariz., where Sparkplug is based. Click here to read a Business Record story about Sparkplug and the services it offers in Iowa.

Resales of homes in the United States rose 7.6 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.77 million as buyers rushed to complete sales before a tax credit expires, MarketWatch reported after a report today from the National Association of Realtors. Inventories surged 11.5 percent to 4.04 million in April, an “unwelcome” development, said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the real estate agents’ lobbying group. The inventory level represented an 8.4-month supply at the April sales pace. Inventories typically rise in April, but this year’s gain was bigger than usual, Yun said. The inventory data are not seasonally adjusted. The trend in sales prices has stabilized over the past four months, Yun said. The median price is up 4 percent in the past year at $173,100.

Loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), the taxpayer-backed mortgage insurer, may be involved in more home-purchase transactions than borrowing financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Bloomberg reported. FHA lending last quarter may have topped the combined volume of government-supported Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a home-lending market that´s still a “government-financed market,” FHA Commissioner David Stevens said today at a conference in New York, citing research by consultant Potomac Partners. “This is a market purely on life support, sustained by the federal government,” he said at the Mortgage Bankers Association conference. “Having FHA do this much volume is a sign of a very sick system.” The FHA, which backs loans with down payments as low as 3.5 percent, insured $52.5 billion of home-purchase mortgages in the first quarter, compared with $46 billion in mortgage debt that is backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to data compiled by Washington-based Potomac Partners.