The bottom line

More homeowners are staying home. The average house is being lived in for 13 years before hitting the market, five years longer than in 2010. That’s led to a shortage of housing inventory: There are now 12.5 homes for sale per 1,000 households, the lowest number on record in 37 years.The Wall Street Journal

Microsoft tested a four-day workweek in Japan and saw sales per employee rise 40 percent compared with a year earlier. The number of pages printed out fell by 59 percent, electricity consumption dropped 23 percent, and 94 percent of employees were satisfied with the program.The Washington Post

Apple pledged $2.5 billion in loans, grants, and investments to combat California’s housing crisis, joining Facebook and Google, which each recently pledged $1 billion.NPR.org

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has a net income of $52 billion this year, making it the most profitable public company in the world. It’s sitting on a cash pile of $128.2 billion, up from $23 billion a decade ago.Bloomberg.com

Some 31 percent of U.S. credit card holders pay their balance each month, the highest share since the American Bankers Association began keeping track in 2008.Axios.com

UPS estimates it will handle 1 million return packages per day in December, a record pace it expects will continue into the new year. Returns season is predicted to peak on Jan. 2 with 1.9 million packages, a 26 percent increase from the previous year.CNN.com