US rate on 30-year mortgage rises to 3.71 pct.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Average rates on fixed mortgages rose this week, the first increase in seven weeks. But mortgage rates remain near historic lows, boosting prospects for home sales this year.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the 30-year loan increased to 3.71 percent. That's up from 3.67 percent last week, the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.
The average rate on the 15-year mortgage, a popular refinancing option, rose to 2.98 percent. That's up from 2.94 percent last week, also a record low.
The rate on the 30-year loan has been below 4 percent since early December. Low rates are a key reason the housing industry is showing modest signs of a recovery this year.
In April, sales of both previously occupied homes and new homes rose near two-year highs. Builders are gaining more confidence in the market, breaking ground on more homes and requesting more permits to build single-family homes later this year.
Low rates could also provide some help to the economy if more people refinance. When people refinance at lower rates, they pay less interest on their loans and have more money to spend.
Still, the pace of home sales remains well below healthy levels. Economists say it could be years before the market is fully healed.
Many people are still having difficulty qualifying for home loans or can't afford larger down payments required by banks. Some would-be home buyers are holding off because they fear that home prices could keep falling.
The economy is growing only modestly and job creation slowed sharply in April and May. U.S. employers created only 69,000 jobs in May, the fewest in a year.
Mortgage rates have been dropping because they tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. Uncertainty about how Europe will resolve its debt crisis has led investors to buy more Treasury securities, which are considered safe investments. As demand for Treasurys increase, the yield falls.
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 0.7 point, unchanged from last week. The fee for 15-year loans also was unchanged at 0.7 point.
The average rate on one-year adjustable rate mortgages slipped to 2.78 percent from 2.79 percent last week. The fee for one-year adjustable rate loans was 0.5, up from 0.4.

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US fixed mortgage rates fall to new record lows

 Fixed U.S. mortgage rates fell again to new record lows, providing prospective buyers with more incentive to brave a modestly recovering housing market.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average on the 30-year loan dropped to 3.62 percent. That's down from 3.66 percent last week and the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.
The average rate on the 15-year mortgage, a popular refinancing option, slipped to 2.89 percent, below last week's previous record of 2.94 percent.
The rate on the 30-year loan has fallen to or matched record low levels in 10 of the past 11 weeks. And it's been below 4 percent since December.
Cheap mortgages have provided a lift to the long-suffering housing market. Sales of new and previously occupied homes are up from the same time last year. Home prices are rising in most markets. And homebuilders are starting more projects and spending at a faster pace.
The number of people who signed contracts to buy previously occupied homes rose in May, matching the fastest pace in two years, the National Association of Realtors reported last week. That suggests Americans are growing more confident in the market.
Low rates could also provide some help to the economy if more people refinance. When people refinance at lower rates, they pay less interest on their loans and have more money to spend. Many homeowners use the savings on renovations, furniture, appliances and other improvements, which help drive growth.
Still, the pace of home sales remains well below healthy levels. Many people are still having difficulty qualifying for home loans or can't afford larger down payments required by banks.
And the sluggish job market could deter some would-be buyers from making a purchase this year. The U.S. economy created only 69,000 jobs in May, the fewest in a year. The unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent last month, up from 8.1 percent in April.
The government reports Friday on June employment.
Mortgage rates have been dropping because they tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. A weaker U.S. economy and uncertainty about how Europe will resolve its debt crisis have led investors to buy more Treasury securities, which are considered safe investments. As demand for Treasurys increase, the yield falls.
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 0.8 point, up from 0.7 percent last week. The fee for 15-year loans also was 0.7 point, unchanged from the previous week.
The average rate on one-year adjustable rate mortgages fell to 2.68 percent, down from 2.74 percent last week. The fee for one-year adjustable rate loans rose to 0.5 point, up from 0.4 point.
The average rate on five-year adjustable rate mortgages was unchanged at 2.79 percent. The fee stayed at 0.6 point.

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W.Va. teachers to attend 'Finance University'

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia University's business school is teaming up with the state auditor's office and a nonprofit economic literacy group called the West Virginia Jump$start Coalition to present a conference for educators to learn personal finance — and how to teach it to their students.
This year's Finance University is the 10th annual event for middle- and high-school teachers. It will be held Monday through Friday at the Charleston Conference Center.
Conference organizers say that participants will take a course to prepare for teaching their students personal-finance topics, including credit-card use, saving and investing, insurance, retirement plans, and more. Fifteen financial experts also are expected to give presentations.

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Average on 30-year US mortgage stays at 3.55 pct.

The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage held steady this week, staying slightly above the lowest level on record. Low mortgage rates have aided a modest housing recovery.
Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan was unchanged at 3.55 percent. In July, the rate fell to 3.49 percent, the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.
The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage, a popular refinancing option, slipped to 2.85 percent, down from 2.86 percent last week. That's above the record low of 2.80 percent.
Cheap mortgages have helped lift the housing market. Sales of new and previously occupied homes are well above last year's levels. Low rates have also allowed people to refinance, which lowers monthly mortgage payments and helps boosts consumer spending.
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.
Mortgage rates are low because they tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. A weaker U.S. economy and uncertainty about how Europe will resolve its debt crisis have led investors to buy more Treasury securities, which are considered safe investments. As demand for Treasurys increase, the yield falls.
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, down from 0.7 point last week. The fee for 15-year loans was changed at 0.6.
The average rate on one-year adjustable rate mortgages was steady at 2.61 percent. The fee for one-year adjustable rate loans also was unchanged, at 0.4 point.
The average rate on five-year adjustable rate mortgages fell to 2.72 percent from 2.75 percent. The fee declined to 0.6 point from 0.7.

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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.

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Hillary Clinton released from the hospital

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been released from a New York hospital after being treated for a blood clot, the State Department announced on Wednesday.
"Her medical team advised her that she is making good progress on all fronts, and they are confident she will make a full recovery," State Department spokesman Philippe Reines said in a statement. A date has not been set for her to return to work.
Clinton was admitted to the hospital on Sunday for treatment of a blood clot related to a concussion she suffered after fainting in December. Her doctors said the clot was located "in the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear," and she was treated with blood thinners.
Clinton is expected to step down as secretary of state this month. President Barack Obama has named Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry to succeed her.

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Runaway Alaska oil rig dragged two tugs for miles

 The runaway oil rig that ran aground in Alaska on New Year's Eve dragged two vessels trying to control it more than 10 miles toward shore in just over an hour before the crews cut it loose to save themselves in "near hurricane" conditions.
Details were still emerging on Wednesday from the U.S. Coast Guard and Royal Dutch/Shell, the company at the center of a controversial and accident-prone Arctic oil drilling program of which the Kulluk drillship is a vital part.
They paint a frightening picture of the 28,000-tonne, saucer-shaped rig being thrust toward the shore on waves up to 35 feet high driven by winds up to 62 mph, pulling its main towing vessel, the Aiviq, and a tug, the Alert, behind it.
"We are talking about near hurricane-strength conditions," said Darci Sinclair of the Kulluk Tow Incident Unified Command, set up by the U.S. Coast Guard and the companies involved. "Regaining control became extremely challenging."
The unified command said the Kulluk was still aground on Sitkalidak Island in the Gulf of Alaska, but "upright and stable". Updates were available at www.kullukresponse.com.
The 30-year-old Kulluk is operated by Noble Corp and was refitted by Shell for its summer 2012 drilling expedition in the Beaufort Sea off northern Alaska.
Shell spent $4.5 billion preparing for extraction activities there and in the Chukchi Sea further east, but has yet to complete a single well, while facing some embarrassing setbacks.
Headlines that raise questions about the wisdom of drilling so far north in such a environmentally delicate and technically challenging place were not expected so early in 2013, given that activity stopped for the season two months ago.
Any Kulluk damage could threaten Shell's 2013 drilling program because its oil-spill plans require a second rig to be available at all times in case a relief well needs to be drilled to kill the well. That is the Noble-owned Discoverer, which would also be unable to drill without another rig nearby.
David Smith, spokesman at the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement in Washington DC, said his division would not yet speculate on the summer. The earliest date that the drilling season could have started last year was July 1.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said the Kulluk's hull appeared sound after a few over flights. More were planned on Wednesday, with more than 600 people supporting the response.
"This is a very large and complex response and it is important that the American public and our elected officials understand the dangerous and difficult challenges being faced by the response crews," Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo, commander of the Coast Guard in Alaska, said in the statement.
The Kulluk was on its way south for the winter. It had been towed east from the Beaufort, and then south through the Bering Strait that separates the northernmost U.S. state from Siberia.
On December 28, about half way to its winter destination in Seattle, and 50 miles south of Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska, engine failure struck the Aiviq - an icebreaker that is less than a year old, and whose name means "Walrus".
The weather was already rough and the Kulluk's 18-strong crew was lifted off, when a doomed four-day battle to keep the Kulluk off the rocks began.
The effort ran into deeper difficulty a few hours after nightfall on December 31, with the shore less than 19 miles away.
Aiviq, one of two vessels attached at the time, lost its line. It was re-attached, and battled on against the elements along with the Alert, but the coastline kept getting closer as the storm pushed all three vessels north-eastwards.
At 8:15 p.m. on Monday (January 1, 0515 GMT), the order came to cut the Kulluk lines to save the Aiviq, the Alert and the crews.
At 8:30 p.m., the lines were cut, and by 8:48, a trajectory map on the unified command website shows, the Kulluk was aground about 1,600 feet from the shore on Sitkalidak Island, near the larger Kodiak Island. The Kulluk, the wind, and the waves had dragged Aiviq and Alert more than 10 miles in just over an hour.
The vessel settled on what one Coast Guard official described as "loose rock and sand".
Noble had no immediate comment. Shell in London has made a series of statements on the progress of the operation, but had nothing to add on Wednesday, and referred calls to the unified command. Shell in Houston could not be reached for comment.
"ONE DISASTER TO THE NEXT"
The spill risk from the drillship is limited to the 143,000 gallons of ultra-low-sulfur diesel and 12,000 gallons of other oil products on board. Still, opponents of Arctic drilling said the accident showed Shell was unable to keep the Arctic safe.
"Shell has lurched from one Arctic disaster to the next, displaying staggering ineptitude every step of the way," Greenpeace campaigner Ben Ayliffe said on Wednesday.
"Were the pristine environment of the frozen north not at risk of an oil spill it would be almost comical. Instead it's tragic," Ayliffe said. "We're moving closer to a major catastrophe in the Arctic and the U.S. government appears unwilling to provide either the needed oversight or emergency backup the company's incompetence requires."
Shell's Arctic campaign has been bedeviled by problems. The Coast Guard briefly detained the Discoverer in December in Seward, Alaska, on safety concerns. A mandatory oil-containment barge, the Arctic Challenger, failed for months to meet requirements for seaworthiness, and a ship mishap resulted in damage to a key piece of equipment intended to cap a blown well.
Asked why the Kulluk was still at sea two months after work stopped, one contract drilling source said the "demobilization" process after drilling can take days or weeks depending on the rig model and its anchoring. It was also possible the weather was rough enough over the last few months to delay transit.
Replacing the Kulluk, if it ends up being badly damaged, would add to the cost of the accident for Shell, which must reimburse the federal and state governments for response costs.
The Discoverer, which it has under a contract with Noble, costs Shell $240,000 per day - or a few-hundred million dollars over the life of the two-year contract. Shell had to spend $292 million upgrading the Kulluk, when was built in 1983 and had been slated to be scrapped before Shell bought it in 2005.

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Fiscal Cliff Compromise: Winners, Losers and Those in Between

The ink was still wet on Congress' fiscal-cliff fix Wednesday morning when Americans started lumping themselves into the winners and losers circles.
And like a Venn diagram of politics, the circles overlapped with many dubbing themselves as part-loser, part-winner. Compromise is one way to view it: While Congress compromised over who qualified as wealthy, families across the country saw comprise in their own lives: Sure, they're spared income-tax increases, but they hand over that juicy 2-percentage-point payroll tax cut.
Most Americans will reap the boons of the compromise: a continuation of the Bush-era tax cuts for those making less than $400,000, more unemployment benefits for those who need them, help for small businesses, and extensions of the Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit and college tuition breaks.
But it's Congress' failure to renew the cut in payroll taxes that garnered attention Wednesday. Those taxes, which fund Social Security, will again sap pocketbooks like they did prior to 2011.
Yahoo News asked Americans to pinpoint how the legislative deal will affect their families' short-term planning and long-term goals. How will the increase in payroll taxes hit their bottom line? What particular portions of the legislation impact them most?
"There are clearly winners and losers here," S.W. Hampson, a New Orleans filmmaker, wrote Wednesday in a first-person perspective. "Winners: The unemployed. Losers: Individuals making $400,000 per year and couples making $450,000 per year. The Biggest Loser: Me, the working man."
Hampson, 29, says he will see about an $800 decrease in take-home pay in 2013 because of the increase in payroll taxes. In the long-term, he'll be more frugal while paying off student loans, keeping a roof over his head and putting food on the table. In the short-term, he says he'll cancel a modest trip to visit family. Ending these economy-boosting tax breaks doesn't add up to him.
"Those extra few dollars a week mean a lot to me as a person working paycheck to paycheck. It isn't like that money is going into savings; it is money I would be spending, hence stimulating the economy," Hampson says.
Finding his expendable income sliced in half, he took to Twitter, telling his followers: "Bureaucratic red tape is eventually replaced by legislative duct tape…until the whole thing falls apart. #USProblems #DC'Solutions'"
Fiscal-cliff effects could've been worse
In Omaha, Neb., Amber Weinacht is more equivocal.
The 35-year-old single mother of three children, ages 14, 11 and 6, says she's counting on the $1,000-per-child tax credits to curb expenses. But the legislation will take around $32 more from her paycheck monthly for Social Security benefits.
"That is a week's worth of gas, or an entire month's supply of milk for my family," Weinacht writes. "Yearly, this adds up to about $350. I cringe when I think of where our family budget will take cuts. It is already mighty lean."
Still, the tax credits, coupled with tax breaks for her residential-cleaning business, make the deal seem not so sour.
"I am hoping that things will even out at the end of the year. I will still be getting the same amount on my tax returns that I am getting now, which is a nice safety net for my family to look forward to. All in all, I guess the deal doesn't seem so bad," Weinacht says.
Fiscal cliff deal gets a 'C' in my book, or ledger
John A. Tures is a political science professor, so he's naturally graded Congress on its efforts to avoid the fiscal cliff.
For the short-term, Congress earns an A-.
Long-term, it nearly fails, bringing home a D-.
"Watching the fiscal cliff deal debate go down was a lot like political theater, but its conclusion would have consequences for me," the LaGrange, Ga., resident writes. "After all, any deal, or lack of one, would lead to changes in taxes and a potential panic on Wall Street."
In the next few years, he and his family are helped by the income-tax extension, reprieve of Medicare payments to doctors and $2,000 worth of child tax credits. He writes: "Contrary to popular belief, professors don't make anywhere near $400,000, and I'm married to a teacher (our household income is way below $450,000), so those tax cuts sticking around help."
But the long-term future isn't so rosy: "One of the biggest shortcomings was the lack of deficit reform. By not cutting spending, and allowing low tax rates to stick around, the fiscal cliff deal could add to the overall debt by $4 trillion. This doesn't affect families like me immediately, but such debt is unsustainable. If it leads to future tax hikes, massive cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and the elimination of college tuition tax breaks and Pell Grants, the short-term success the deal has for my family won't be worth it. Hopefully, the new Congress will have more appetite for long-term spending reforms, keeping more of what we need, and less of what we don't."
Legislation's Medicare provisions a relief
For Marla Mayes' parents, rescuing Medicare payments to doctors may literally be life-saving.
Mayes' parents suffer from a variety of conditions: renal kidney failure, diabetes, high blood pressure, lung cancer and more. Had Congress not reached the fiscal cliff compromise, Medicare payments to doctors could have been cut by nearly 27 percent.
"Most of Dad's doctors were going to drop him," Mayes, who works as an unpaid caregiver for her folks in Merritt Island, Fla., writes. "Most of my folks' doctors already have big office signs stating they are not accepting any new Medicare patients."
Without the Medicare provisions extended, she could forget about a second opinion and likely not a first one. When her 79-year-old father had dialysis problems, a second surgeon spotted a tumor on his lung in an x-ray. Immediate surgery and a biopsy followed.
"I can't fathom trying something like that if the fiscal cliff deal had not passed," Mayes says.

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Senior trapped in Mississauga, Ont., nursing home elevator for more than a day

BRAMPTON, Ont. - Officials are investigating after an elderly woman was trapped in an elevator at her Mississauga, Ont., nursing home for more than 24 hours.
Peel Region chair Emil Kolb said Wednesday in a statement that the senior was trapped in the elevator at the Malton Village Long Term from the evening of Dec. 23 until early Christmas morning.
Kolb says the woman had been out with her family on Dec. 23 and was dropped off at the front door that evening, but staff thought she was staying with family when she didn't return to her room.
It's believed she became trapped in the elevator between floors on her way to her room and it no one realized that she was missing until 24 hours later.
A search was begun and she was finally found in the malfunctioning elevator, was treated at the scene by paramedics and taken to hospital for evaluation.
Kolb says she returned to the centre on Christmas Day by dinnertime and although she is recovering well, she remains under close observation.
Kolb called the incident "very distressing" and said it was "very unhappy news on what should be one of the most joyous (days) of the year."
"My distress was certainly far less than that of the resident and her family," he added.
"We consider this an extremely serious failure," Kolb said.
The Ministry of Health and Long Term Care was advised of the incident and Kolb said regional officials are co-operating fully with the investigation.
He said action has already been taken to ensure residents on leave from the centre are accounted for on their return, including requiring that families and residents sign in and out of the centre.
"No resident or family should ever have to experience such an event again," Kolb said.

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McConnell: Fiscal cliff deal not great, but it shields Americans from tax hike

Editor's note: This op/ed is by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
The first day of a new Congress always represents a fresh start. This year, it also presents a perfect opportunity to tackle the single-greatest challenge facing our nation: reining in the out-of-control federal spending that threatens to permanently alter our economy and dim the prospects and opportunities of future generations of Americans.
Earlier this week, I helped negotiate an imperfect solution aimed at avoiding the so-called “fiscal cliff.” If I had my way taxes would not have gone up on anyone, but the unavoidable fact was this if we had sat back and done nothing taxes would have gone up dramatically on every single American, and I simply couldn’t allow that to happen.
By acting, we’ve shielded more than 99% of taxpayers from a massive tax hike that President Obama was all-too willing to impose. American families and small businesses that would have seen painfully smaller paychecks and profits this month have been spared. Retirement accounts for seniors won’t be whittled down by a dramatic increase in taxes on investment income. And many who’ve spent a lifetime paying taxes on income and savings won’t be slammed with a dramatically higher tax on estates.
Was it a great deal? No. As I said, taxes shouldn’t be going up at all. Just as importantly, the transcendent issue of our time, the spiraling debt, remains completely unaddressed. Yet now that the President has gotten his long-sought tax hike on the “rich,” we can finally turn squarely toward the real problem, which is spending.
Predictably, the President is already claiming that his tax hike on the “rich” isn’t enough. I have news for him: the moment that he and virtually every elected Democrat in Washington signed off on the terms of the current arrangement, it was the last word on taxes. That debate is over. Now the conversation turns to cutting spending on the government programs that are the real source of the nation’s fiscal imbalance. And the upcoming debate on the debt limit is the perfect time to have that discussion.
We simply cannot increase the nation’s borrowing limit without committing to long overdue reforms to spending programs that are the very cause of our debt.
The only way to achieve the balance the President claims to want is by cutting spending. As he himself has admitted, no amount of tax hikes or revenue could possibly keep up with the amount of money Washington is projected to spend in the coming years. At some point, high taxes become such a drag on the economy that the revenue stalls.
While most Washington Democrats may want to deny it, the truth is, the only thing we can do to solve the nation’s fiscal problem is to tackle government spending head on — and particularly, spending on health care programs, which appear to take off like a fighter jet on every chart available that details current trends in federal spending.
The President may not want to have a fight about government spending over the next few months, but it’s the fight he is going to have, because it’s a debate the country needs. For the sake of our future, the President must show up to this debate early and convince his party to do something that neither he nor they have been willing to do until now. Over the next two months they need to deliver the same kind of bipartisan resolution to the spending problem we have now achieved on revenue — before the 11th hour.
When it comes to spending, the time has come to rise above the special interest groups that dominate the liberal wing of the Democratic Party in Washington and act, without drama or delay. The President likes to say that most Americans support tax hikes on the rich. What he conveniently leaves out is that even more Americans support cuts. That’s the debate the American people really want. It’s a debate Republicans are ready to have. And it’s the debate that starts today, whether the President wants it or not.

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