Rates on 30-year mortgages set a record for a fifth straight week by dropping to below 5 percent, the lowest mark since Freddie Mac started tracking the data in 1971. ...more

January 15, 2009

The Jan. 11 article by Adrian Sainz, "Retirees May Need A Backup Plan," misses the point. ...more

January 14, 2009

The safety net is almost gone, the nest egg is cracking. Many Americans have recently found themselves changing retirement plans after losing a substantial amount of home equity as the housing market and the overall U.S. economy struggle. These folks face years of living on fixed incomes from pensions, 401(k)s or IRAs, and Social Security, but don't have the time to recover their losses. ...more

January 11, 2009

U.S. mortgage rates dropped to the lowest level in nearly four decades this week as the government stepped up efforts to revive the housing market. ...more

January 1, 2009

"Credit, the disposition of one man to trust another, is singularly varying," Walter Bagehot, the financial journalist, wrote 135 years ago. "In England, after a great calamity, everybody is suspicious of everybody; as soon as that calamity is forgotten, everybody again confides in everybody." ...more

January 1, 2009

Tampa Bay area home prices continued to fall in October, posting a 19.8 percent decline from a year ago, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index, released Tuesday. ...more

December 31, 2008

TAMPA -- Bay area home prices continued to fall in October, posting a 19.8 percent decline from a year ago, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index, released this morning. The index, a closely watched indicator of the health of the nation's housing market, tracks 20 metro cities and showed prices dropped 18 percent from last year -- a record decline. ...more

December 30, 2008

Business sales have been every bit as slow as the housing market. Given the current climate, it seemed the shopping center space formerly known as Ram's Restaurant would stay vacant for months. ...more

December 29, 2008

If you financed a car with a small down-payment, there's a good chance you're upside-down on your loan, meaning you owe more than the vehicle's worth. ...more

December 28, 2008

When the year 2008 dawned, we all knew the White House was going to be up for grabs. That guaranteed things would not be dull. The past year definitely wasn't boring, but not for the reasons people thought at the start of the year. ...more

December 27, 2008