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US mortgage rates decrease for second week, falling to 7.02%
Mortgage rates in the U.S. eased further, relieving some pressure on buyers forging ahead in a tough U.S. housing market.
The average for a 30-year, fixed loan was 7.02%, down from 7.09% last week, Freddie Mac said in a statement Thursday. It’s the fifth-straight week with mortgage rates above 7%.
While the recent pullback helps to ease ...Read more
'Sandwich generation': How this family built an ADU for aging parents in their yard
RALEIGH, North Carolina — It’s Friday night. Sara and Lee Stein are leaving their home to meet her mother and stepfather, Abby and Bob Millhauser, for an early dinner.
From their front door, they walk 42 steps to reach her parents’ brand-new, 940-square-foot accessory dwelling unit (ADU). It’s even less (14 steps) if they leave from the...Read more
San Diego's coastal zoning loophole 'pitting neighbor against neighbor'
SAN DIEGO — A San Diego zoning loophole is pitting neighbors against one another in Crown Point and making every coastal community in the city, from Ocean Beach to La Jolla, vulnerable to similar battles.
All across the city’s coastal zone, large backyard apartments can be built directly next to a neighboring property with no setback or ...Read more
Buying a home in Southern California? There are now more options
For much of the past year, the Southern California housing market has been defined by an extreme shortage of homes for sale.
The abnormal scarcity — compounded by the region's long-running underproduction of housing — emerged when homeowners chose not to sell and give up pandemic-era mortgage rates. The so-called seller strike helped pushed...Read more
Real estate Q&A: How can we facilitate home renovations?
Q: We plan on fully remodeling our kitchen and having some other work done on our home. What can we do to make sure the process goes smoothly? — Ted
A: Planning properly and having reasonable expectations is essential when getting into any major project.
When hiring contractors and drawing up plans, try to be very specific about what you ...Read more
Everyday Cheapskate: Caught in the Credit Card Debt Trap
Dear Cheapskate: I have three credit cards with interest rates upwards of 30%, the result of late payments in the past. With my limited budget, I can only manage the minimum monthly payment on each, which is more than $200 per account.
Despite paying on time for many months now, huge finance (interest) charges have pushed me over the limit on ...Read more
Everyday Cheapskate: Put Some Sparkle in Your Spring Cleaning
If the arrival of spring has you energized you the way it has me, I say let's take advantage and do a bit of spring cleaning!
Earl Proulx's wonderful book "Yankee Home Hints" is bursting with tips for cheap, easy, quick home cleaning. I could sit for hours reading this classic tome. Instead, I've plucked a few of Earl's spring-cleaning tips on ...Read more
Brooklyn's Red Hook Marine Terminal takes step toward mixed-use future: Hochul, Adams
A once-bustling but worn-down industrial Brooklyn marine terminal could be converted into a mixed-use area, perhaps including housing, officials said Tuesday.
Mayor Adams said the city aims to “reimagine” the 122-acre port, which is nestled between Red Hook and the Columbia Street Waterfront District. The terminal is set to be transferred ...Read more
Skyrocketing home insurance rates, loss of coverage roil Colorado's strained housing market
Coloradans looking to buy homes or simply hold onto their property face a barrage of challenges: a white-hot real estate market, high interest rates and soaring property taxes. You can add surging home insurance rates to the pile of problems eroding the landscape of affordable housing options.
Colorado homeowners are reporting premium increases...Read more
Treat buy now, pay later loans like real debt
It’s been close to two years since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau indicated it was looking to tighten regulations on popular “buy now, pay later” services. Since then, the sector has grown to $300 billion. It’s time to bring meaningful transparency to an industry that has drawn in legions of consumers, including those ...Read more
Everyday Cheapskate: Burning Mail Is Never a Good Thing
It's been years since I read the news story about a U.S. Postal Service worker in Louisiana who, after getting caught, pleaded guilty to destroying mail -- a federal crime. Turns out that for at least 18 months, instead of delivering the mail to his postal customers, this guy took it home and burned it. He estimated he burned 20 tubs of mail. ...Read more
Newsom's latest insurance move could help Californians avoid canceled policies -- but they'll have to pay
As some Californians continue scrambling for ways to affordably insure their homes, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced a push to expedite how quickly insurance companies can increase rates.
Speedier approvals for rate hikes is one of the key reforms insurers say is necessary for them to stay afloat amid a growing number of costly claims in ...Read more
Piecing together the puzzle of college financial aid
There's been a lot of drama this spring for families seeking college financial aid.
The trouble stems from a revamp of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), where changes and technology glitches have been an ongoing source of frustration for families.
The federal government, meanwhile, was significantly delayed in relaying data...Read more
Home insurance mistakes to avoid as we enter hurricane season
Nobody likes paying for homeowner insurance.
That’s been especially true in Florida, where over the past few years, as more frequent storms and high litigation rates have doubled the cost of insurance for just about everyone who owns a home.
It’s tempting for homeowners, particularly seniors on fixed incomes, to put off critical upgrades ...Read more
Would you rent a room in an apartment with a stranger? This development is betting on it
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — Many renters in Charlotte pay to have a bathroom, living room and kitchen all to themselves — but for some people, one room is enough.
Now an apartment company is trying something new, where people can rent a bedroom for less than paying for an entire apartment, but share common space with a stranger. It’s kind...Read more
Study: American workers plan to slow-roll into retirement
Often when people aged 50 or older contact her, Pittsburgh financial coach Shay Port said the conversation starts with them declaring that they will never be able to retire.
"They say things like, 'I know I will have to work the rest of my life,'" Port said. "And that's what I try to help them with — actually being able to retire at some ...Read more
Everyday Cheapskate: The Excess of Consumption
The dreaded disease we know as tuberculosis was at one time known as consumption.
A highly contagious illness, consumption got its name from the way it takes a person's life slowly from within -- first with a bloody cough, then fever, pallor and the long, relentless wasting away.
What irony that consumption, as we know it today, has an eerily ...Read more
Report: 80 percent of low-income San Diegans spending more than half their income on rent
The vast majority of low-income renters in San Diego County are spending more than half of their income on rent, said a new study.
San Diego's Affordable Housing Needs Report, released Thursday by the nonprofit California Housing Partnership, gave the region poor marks across the board for everything from homeless housing to subsidized rentals ...Read more
Graffitied skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles poised for sale
Oceanwide Plaza, the bankrupt, unfinished development in downtown Los Angeles that became a canvas for trespassing graffiti artists, is officially on the market.
The Chinese owners of the stalled residential, hotel and retail complex towering over Crypto.com Arena have hired real estate brokers to sell the property to buyers who could restart ...Read more
A tale of two downtowns in LA: As offices languish, apartments thrive
By many measures, downtown Los Angeles’ newest apartment tower is over the top with such gilded flourishes as stone tiles from Spain lining the elevator cabs and hand-troweled Italian plaster on interior walls. Hummingbirds have somehow found the fruit-laden trees decorating the outdoor lounge on the 41st floor.
For Stuart Morkun, the ...Read more
Inside Consumer
Popular Stories
- San Diego's coastal zoning loophole 'pitting neighbor against neighbor'
- Buying a home in Southern California? There are now more options
- Real estate Q&A: How can we facilitate home renovations?
- 'Sandwich generation': How this family built an ADU for aging parents in their yard
- US mortgage rates decrease for second week, falling to 7.02%
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