Kenyan house prices rise in Q3 on interest rate drop

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's house prices rose by 7.1 percent in the third quarter of 2012 compared to the same period last year, a real estate firm said on Wednesday, as lower mortgage rates on the back of falling interest rates spurred demand for prime real estate.

Housing has been one of Kenya's fastest growing sectors over the last decade, fuelled by a burgeoning middle class with higher disposable incomes. Returns on investments in the sector have easily outpaced those of equities and government securities.

HassConsult, a real estate firm which publishes the only regular property price index in the country, said a reduction in lending rates by commercial banks was expected to spur further growth of the property market and help support an upward movement of house prices.

"The week that the central bank dropped the rates, activity peaked up (September)," said Sakina Hassanali, marketing manager at HassConsult.

"Confidence in the property market has come back ... If the last six weeks are any clue, then the coming (quarter), so long as mortgages continue going down, we are in a better place than we were six months ago."

The central bank has cut its benchmark rate twice since July by a total of 500 basis points to 13 percent, having raised the rate to 18 percent last year to fight double-digit inflation and stabilise the shilling.

Inflation fell to 5.32 percent in September from 6.09 percent previously, having peaked at 20 percent late last year, while the shilling has largely oscillated at 85 to the dollar this year, from a record low of 107 in October last year.

The lending rates in commercial banks have dropped to about 19 percent, from as high as 30 percent earlier in the year, easing the cost of funding for both house developers and buyers.

"Even the psychological satisfaction of (investors) knowing that the rates are coming down, makes (investors) make that buying decision instantly," said Caroline Kariuki, the managing director of The Mortgage Company.

The east African nation of 40 million people has a massive housing shortage with annual demand at 250,000 units per year against a supply of 60,000 units, a World Bank study showed.

Kariuki said a steady rise of diaspora remittances to a record high of $891.1 million in 2011, had boosted development of the real estate sector, while China was singled out as one of the top foreign investors in east Africa's biggest economy.

"... We have seen (Chinese investors) getting financing at very cheap rates for their projects, so you will find that they have became significant players in Kenya," said Kariuki.

China is one of the main players in the construction of Kenya's infrastructure such as roads.

Read More..

Rate on 30-year mortgage hits record low 3.40 pct.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages fell again to new record lows. The decline suggests the Federal Reserve's stimulus efforts may be having an impact on mortgage rates.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan dropped to 3.40 percent. That's down from last week's rate of 3.49 percent, which was the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.

The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage, a popular refinancing option, fell to 2.73 percent, down from the record low of 2.77 percent last week.

The Fed is spending $40 billion a month to buy mortgage-backed securities. The goal is to lower mortgage rates and help the housing recovery. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says the program will continue until there is substantial improvement in the job market.

Some economists expect mortgage rates to fall even further because of the Fed's bond purchases.

The housing market already is benefiting from the lowest mortgage rates on record. Sales of both previously occupied and newly built homes in the U.S. are up from last year. Home prices are rising more consistently. And builders are more confident in the market and are starting to build more homes.

The broader economy is also likely to benefit from a revival in the housing market. When home prices rise, Americans typically feel wealthier and spend more.

Still, the housing market has a long way back. Sales and construction rates remain below healthy levels.

And some economists question whether lower rates will make much of a difference. The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage has been below 4 percent since early December. So most people who can qualify have likely already taken advantage of the lower rates.

Many people who would like to refinance or buy a home can't because they fail to meet stricter lending requirements or don't have enough money to make a down payment.

To calculate average rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week.

The average does not include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.

The average fee for 30-year loans was 0.6 point, unchanged from last week. The fee for 15-year loans also held steady at 0.6 point.

The average rate on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages dipped to 2.60 percent from 2.61 percent. The fee for one-year adjustable rate loans was unchanged at 0.4 point.

The average rate on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 2.71 percent from 2.76 percent. The fee remained at 0.6 point.

Read More..

Already signs Fed action is working: Boston Fed's Rosengren

QUINCY, Massachusetts (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve's decision last week to buy large quantities of mortgage-backed securities is already having a positive effect on wholesale mortgage rates, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston said on Thursday.

Eric Rosengren, in a speech to a chamber of commerce in the Boston suburb of Quincy, also said the U.S. economy was clearly in better shape than some developed peers internationally, but still not strong enough to bring the unemployment rate down more quickly.

Read More..

Ahead of the Bell: Weekly mortgage rates

WASHINGTON (AP) — Loan buyer Freddie Mac reports Thursday on whether mortgage rates are continuing to hold near recent low rates.

Last week the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage held steady at 3.55 percent, slightly above the record low of 3.49 percent that was reached in July. Meanwhile, the average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage, a popular refinancing option, dipped to 2.85 percent from 2.86 percent.

Cheap mortgages have helped the housing market recover this year. Sales of new and previously occupied homes are well above last year's levels.

Home prices are increasing more consistently this year, largely because the supply of homes has shrunk while sales have risen. And the number of Americans who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth declined in the second quarter.

Still, the housing market has a long way back. Home sales are below healthy levels. And many people are still having difficulty qualifying for home loans or can't afford larger down payments required by banks.

Read More..

Ahead of the Bell: Weekly mortgage rates

WASHINGTON (AP) — Loan buyer Freddie Mac reports Thursday on whether mortgage rates are continuing to hold near recent low rates.

Last week the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage held steady at 3.55 percent, slightly above the record low of 3.49 percent that was reached in July. Meanwhile, the average rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage, a popular refinancing option, dipped to 2.85 percent from 2.86 percent.

Cheap mortgages have helped the housing market recover this year. Sales of new and previously occupied homes are well above last year's levels.

Home prices are increasing more consistently this year, largely because the supply of homes has shrunk while sales have risen. And the number of Americans who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth declined in the second quarter.

Still, the housing market has a long way back. Home sales are below healthy levels. And many people are still having difficulty qualifying for home loans or can't afford larger down payments required by banks.

Read More..

U.S. mortgage refinancing applications rise as rates hit record low: MBA

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Applications for home mortgages dipped last week, though demand for refinancings rose as mortgage rates fell to a record low, an industry group said on Wednesday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, edged down 0.2 percent in the week ended Sept 14.

The seasonally adjusted index of refinancing applications gained 0.80 percent. The gauge of loan requests for home purchases, a leading indicator of home sales, tumbled 3.8 percent.

The refinance share of total mortgage activity rose to 81 percent of applications from 80 percent the week before.

Fixed 30-year mortgage rates fell 3 basis points to average 3.72 percent, the lowest rate in the history of the survey.

The survey covers over 75 percent of U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, according to MBA.

Read More..

Kaiser Permanente to Add 500 Jobs in Colorado

The office of Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has announced that health care provider Kaiser Permanente plans to open an information technology (IT) campus in Englewood in January. Along with the opening of the campus will be about 500 jobs by 2015. Here are the details.

* Kaiser Permanente's new IT campus will be a 120,000-square-foot, five story building located near major highways, several shops, cafes and fitness centers. The facility will include a day care center and an independently operated deli.

* Hickenlooper said that the company's plan is "welcome news" in Colorado and credited the state's high-tech workforce, healthy business ecosystem and excellent quality of life as an attraction for employers looking to create new jobs. "Kaiser Permanente's new IT campus is another win for Colorado," the governor said.

* Kaiser Permanente Colorado's president, Donna Lynne, DrPH, stated that the demographics of metro Denver, a healthy real estate market and "an expansive talent pool of potential employees" made Englewood an ideal location for the new campus.

* Currently, Kaiser Permanente employs about 6,000 IT professionals nationwide.

* Kaiser Permanente operates the largest non-governmental medical record system in the world, according to Hickenlooper's office, with its HealthConnect electronic health record of it more than 9 million members nationwide made accessible to more than 16,000 physicians.

* Members also have access to electronic health information management features, including online appointment scheduling, prescription refills, lab test results, eligibility and benefits information and children's immunization records.

* According to Phil Fasano, the executive vice president and chief information officer of Kaiser Permanente, the new IT campus in Colorado will help the company honor its commitment to use technology to facilitate patient care and improve health outcomes.

* Kaiser Permenente is Colorado's largest nonprofit health plan, with a state membership of about 535,000. The company has 26 medical offices in Colorado and with 6,000 staff and physicians employed in the state, it is one of Colorado's largest private employers.

* In 2011, Kaiser Permanente directed more than $90 million to services, partnerships and programs directly benefiting Colorado communities, the company stated, including discounted and free care to more than 9,000 low income patients. Kaiser Permanente supports community programs in Colorado that include LiveWell Colorado, Weigh and Win and Denver B-cycle.

Read More..

Cave Artists Had Leg Up On Moderns

Who was the better artist, a caveman or Leonardo da Vinci?

It turns out that early depictions of four-legged animals walking are more accurate in some ways than modern ones—even those crafted by the Renaissance master. The study is in the journal PLoS ONE. [Gabor Horvath et al, Cavemen Were Better at Depicting Quadruped Walking than Modern Artists: Erroneous Walking Illustrations in the Fine Arts from Prehistory to Today]

Without fancy cameras, we two-leggers can have trouble visualizing the sequence of leg motion in a quadruped's gait. Hungarian scientists recently analyzed a thousand statues, paintings and other art created in prehistory or more recently. Specifically, the researchers checked how the legs of ostensibly moving quadrupeds hit the ground, to see if these depictions matched actual animal locomotion.

Of course, 19th century photographer Eadweard Muybridge famously captured a horse's motion in stop-motion photographs. Artwork in the centuries prior to his photos got the legs wrong 84 percent of the time. The error rate dropped to 58 percent after his photos came out. But prehistoric artists topped all with just a 46 percent error rate. Perhaps those cave painters paid such close attention to detail because they wanted to avoid being starving artists.

Read More..

Residents go home after toxic chemicals cleared in NJ train wreck

PAULSBORO, New Jersey (Reuters) - Residents evacuated after last week's freight train derailment spewed toxic vinyl chloride began returning home on Friday as tests of the air came back clean, a Coast Guard official said.

Exactly one week after a bridge collapsed, derailing seven of the 82 Conrail freight-train cars crossing the Mantua Creek, residents who were ordered out of 148 homes nearest the wreck were allowed back into their homes on Friday afternoon.

Coast Guard Captain Kathy Moore said air tests in the south New Jersey town showed no further evidence of vinyl chloride, which had leaked from a gash in one tanker that tumbled into the waterway that feeds into the Delaware River near Philadelphia.

At the time of the wreck, authorities said 12,000 gallons (45,425 liters) of vinyl chloride had escaped.

Groups of residents were being led to their homes by law enforcement and air quality officials. The Coast Guard also offered in-home air quality checks to any resident seeking further assurance that their home is safe.

"Our priority has been and continues to be the safety of Paulsboro residents," Moore said.

Earlier in the week, residents said they were anxious to get back home after living in a series of hotels.

"I've been in tears because I want to go home," said Terri Manning, 51, who was evacuated with her husband and son from their home about 200 yards from the wreck.

"My parakeet is in the house. She's probably dead by now," said Manning, a farmers market worker who said she had spent all her cash paying for hotels and other emergency living expenses.

Vinyl chloride is a highly toxic and flammable industrial chemical. Exposure to it can cause respiratory problems, coughing and light-headedness, said Lawrence Ragonese, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The failed rail-bridge is near both residential and commercial sections of the town of 6,100 people, which is also home to two oil refineries as well as chemical plants.

Conrail is jointly owned by rail operators CSX Corp and Norfolk Southern Corp.

Read More..

Dow, S&P rise on jobs, but Apple bites Nasdaq again

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow and the S&P 500 advanced modestly on Friday, though another sell-off in Apple depressed technology shares and kept the Nasdaq negative, overshadowing a sharply better-than-expected jobs report.

Trading was light, continuing the week's trend of slight moves and anemic volume. The S&P 500 ended up a mere 0.1 percent for the week, following several volatile sessions that repeatedly pushed it in and out of positive territory. The benchmark index is just 3.8 percent below the 2012 intraday high of 1,474.51 reached in mid-September.

Equities opened higher after the non-farm payrolls report, which showed 146,000 jobs added in November, far more than had been expected, while the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 percent. A sour reading on consumer sentiment caused an erosion of those gains, though markets rebounded going into the close.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for early December fell to its lowest level since August. Sentiment fell on growing concerns over the "fiscal cliff" debates in Washington, which have been a major factor preventing broader moves as well.

"We're not as concerned as we were a few months ago because of improvement like you can see in the employment number, but there's such a wild card over the cliff," said Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank in Cleveland, Ohio. "There are such concerns about what could happen that markets will be overhung until a resolution is more certain."

One of the biggest drags on the Nasdaq was Apple which fell 2.6 percent to $533.25, extending its losses for the week to 8.9 percent. This was the worst week for the stock since May 2010, and with the losses, the stock of the largest U.S. company by market value is now down 24.4 percent from an all-time intraday high reached in late September.

In Friday's session, Apple's 50-day moving average fell to $599.52 - below its 200-day moving average at $601.38. The weakness drove the S&P information technology sector <.gspt> lower. The index fell 0.6 percent and was the weakest of the S&P 500's 10 major industry sectors on Friday.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 81.09 points, or 0.62 percent, to 13,155.13 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> rose 4.13 points, or 0.29 percent, to 1,418.07. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> slipped 11.23 points, or 0.38 percent, to close at 2,978.04.

For the week, the Nasdaq is down 1.1 percent, hurt largely by the decline in Apple.

The Dow, which does not count Apple as a component, rose 1 percent for its third straight week of gains. The S&P 500 is also up for three straight weeks, rising 4.3 percent over that period.

The equity market has regained most of the ground it lost following President Barack Obama's re-election as markets turned their focus to the coming "fiscal cliff." Market response to the macroeconomic data remained muted as negotiations continued to command investor attention.

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said that talks this week with President Barack Obama produced no progress, and he renewed his demand that the president provide a new offer to avert the series of tax increases and spending cuts that are likely to hurt economic demand in 2013.

Material shares <.gspm> were the strongest performers of the day, with that index up 0.8 percent. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Co gained 2.9 percent to $31.70 while Dow Chemical added 2.2 percent to $30.30.

Amarin Corp fell 18.9 percent to $9.69 after the biopharmaceutical company raised $100 million in financing to help it launch its heart drug, Vascepa, but disappointed investors, who had hoped for a sale or partnership.

CombiMatrix Corp shares more than quadrupled, soaring 336.6 percent to $8.60 after the company said two studies published in a medical journal favored technology it uses for prenatal diagnosis of genetic abnormalities over traditional technologies.

About 52 percent of shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange closed higher while slightly more than 50 percent of Nasdaq-listed stocks closed lower.

Volume was light, with about 5.47 billion shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, below the daily average so far this year of about 6.48 billion shares.

Read More..