Citing the “crush” of student loan debt and its impact on the future of the economy, President Barack Obama announced plans to expand a program designed to make it easier for borrowers to pay back their student loans.
On April 1, 1976, Ron Wayne entered a partnership with Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. Called Apple, the new company prepared to launch its first computer. By the end of that same month, Wayne agreed to a payout of $2,300 to give up all rights to futur…
WASHINGTON — U.S. construction spending rose to its highest level in five years in April, but the increase was less than expected, suggesting a mild pick-up after residential and nonresidential construction contracted in the first quarter.
Freddie Mac recently released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing average fixed mortgage rates falling for the fifth consecutive week and hitting new 2014 lows. The average for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is at its lowest point since the week of October 31, 2013.
WASHINGTON — Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages fell this week for a fifth straight week. The spring home-buying season has started slowly, but it may be aided by the low rates. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday the average rate for a 30-year loan edged down to 4.12 percent from 4.14 percent last…
The job market in Texas just keeps growing. The Lone Star state added 52,600 jobs in April and has now added 124,020 in 2014, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
Jobs in Texas have grown at a rate of 3.3% in 2014. That’s up from 2013, when jobs grew at a rate of 2.5% in the state.
A rise in mortgage rates could explain much of the weakness in U.S. home resales and further increases in the cost of home loans could dampen the recovery, a Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco economist said in a paper published on Monday.
The regulator of government-controlled mortgage finance firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said on Sunday he would not oppose them having a smaller presence in the market but private capital had to be ready to take over first.
The nation is abuzz with the positive news that rising home prices will solve our foreclosure issues and the parallel economic crises. However, according to a new report released by UC Berkeley’s Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society…
The number of people receiving unemployment insurance fell again for the week ending May 3 from the previous week’s numbers, down 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted figure of 2.68 million. That’s the lowest unemployment has been since December 1, 2007, when it was 2.64 million.
WASHINGTON — The delinquency rate on home mortgages in the United States fell in the first three months of the year to its lowest level in six years, a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday.
Since banks would be earning zero, or even less than zero, on their deposits at the Fed, their incentives to lend could change quickly, particularly if the Fed were to adopt a negative deposit-rate policy — something no one is currently expecting. With that dramatic step, the Fed could actually charge a fee for holding those deposits.
Tuesday may prove to be a banner day for expanding credit access. First, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt named maintaining credit availability as one of his main goals for the FHFA and the GSEs.
While the national media is mostly focused on the Federal Communications Commission’s latest net neutrality follies (still a regulatory solution in search of a problem), the far bigger policy challenge the Commission faces is executing the most complex spectrum auction in the agency’s history. Unfortunately, the FCC seems more concerned with picking winners and losers…
As America emerges from winter into a hopeful but untested spring housing market, the real estate industry has been aflutter with a mix of news.
To get the biggest bang for your buck, here are some strategies you can use to turn even a lean refund into your dream vacation. 1. House Rules Book a vacation house over a hotel to make your vacation bucks go the furthest. Houses typically hold more people with fewer fees. Living like a local…
After the 2008 economic meltdown, when the stock market fell 37 percent, veteran financial advisor Curt Whipple says he met with clients from outside financial institutions who’d lost 50 to 60 percent of their portfolio in a single year. “Almost no one foresaw what happened that year, and I doubt very much that many will…
Ever since the financial crisis of 2008, many pundits and experts have openly doubted the viability of achieving the American dream. With homeownership, job opportunity and retirement security in decline, an Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor poll shows that most Americans agree with what the experts have said. Seven in 10 think that tomorrow’s adults –…
Exclusive Excerpt from: “Comical Sense: A Lone Humorist Takes on a World Gone Nutty!” by Tom Purcell I stumbled upon my father’s 1959 income tax return a few years ago. How I long for the simplicity he enjoyed when he filed his taxes that year. For 1959, my father paid a measly 5 percent in…
