Americans received over 3.8 billion robocalls in July, marking an 11.9 percent decrease from June.

Because July has one more day than June, robocalls were actually down a whopping 14.7 percent on a daily basis.

Specifically, July averaged 123.1 million calls per day and 1,424 calls per second, compared to 144.3 million calls per day and 1,670 calls per second in June.

The decline is likely due primarily to the July 4th holiday, as well as 10 weekend days this July versus eight weekend days in June, both of which led to substantially fewer unwanted calls, as robocallers make fewer calls on weekends and holidays.

For the year, U.S. consumers are on pace to receive slightly over 48 million robocalls this year, very similar to last year.

South Carolina was one of the states with the most robocalls per person, with 21.2 calls per person for July, down 13 percent from the previous month.

“It's nice to see a meaningful drop in daily robocalls in July, though we've seen month-over-month drops before,” said YouMail CEO Alex Quilici.

“That said, continuing efforts in enforcement, technology improvements, and changes in consumer behavior should ultimately lessen the number and impact of these calls.”

These latest figures are provided by YouMail, a robocall blocking app and call protection service for mobile phones. These figures are determined by extrapolating from the robocall traffic attempting to get through to YouMail's millions of active users.

July saw 430 million fewer scam and spam robocalls combined than June, a huge decline. Together, there were roughly 1.9 billion likely unwanted robocalls in July.  

Origin SC is offering free Housing Stability Counseling services designed to provide households and individuals facing housing instability, such as eviction, default, foreclosure, loss of income or homelessness with preventative solutions through coaching and referral resources. 

By applying to Origin SC’s program, applicants can receive free counseling and coaching services from a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) certified counselor.

The counseling session may include a free tri-merged credit report, a budgeting consultation, and action plan. Qualified households could be eligible to receive rental, utility, or mortgage assistance.  

The goal of this program is to provide valuable budgeting counseling, education, and resources to households facing housing instability. Origin's Housing Stability Counseling Services are partially funded by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and certain government mandated restrictions apply. 

To get started, applicants can complete the online intake process by going to originsc.org/eviction-prevention/.

Applicants will then be contacted by email to arrange a virtual appointment with one of Origin's Licensed Credit and HUD Certified Housing counselors to determine available options, develop an individualized plan for their situation, and help try and find solutions for the long term.

For more info, call 843-628-3000, Ext. 1.

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) has announced a call for entries for the 2023 Phillip D. Reed Environmental Writing Award, celebrating writers who achieve both literary excellence and offer extraordinary insight into the South's natural treasures and environmental challenges.  

Presented each year, the Reed Award recognizes outstanding writing on the Southern environment in two categories: the Book Category for works of nonfiction (not self-published) and the Journalism Category for newspaper, magazine, and digital writing published by a recognized institution such as a news organization, university, or nonprofit group.

Nominations are welcome from anyone, including readers, authors, and publishers.

Recent winners include Catherine Coleman Flowers, author of “Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret,” and Tony Bartelme, special projects report for the Charleston Post and Courier.

All submissions must relate to the natural environment in at least one of the following states: Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, or Virginia, and they must have been published between Oct. 1, 2021, and Sept. 30, 2022.

The deadline for submission is Oct. 1, 2022. For more information, go to www.southernenvironment.org.

Analysis of Google search data reveals that searches for “sell my house” exploded 147 percent in the United States as of July 2022, the highest level in internet history for America.

This comes as Americans face rising property and rent costs, with fears of a recession looming.

The analysis by luxury real estate platform RubyHome reveals that searches for “sell my house” exploded to more than double the average volume within the past month, an unprecedented increase in Americans looking to sell their property, according to Google search data analysis.

The data also reveals that searches for “sell my house for cash” is also at an all-time high.   

This comes at a time where the U.S. housing market sees mortgage rates doubling from this time last year (5.5 percent, up from 2.8 percent), and according to Zillow, the average house price in America is up 20.7 percent on last year, at $350,000.