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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

Read More..