Financial News Headlines

Mortgage rates up slightly this week

November 18th, 2011

Fixed mortgage rates inched upwards this week but remain near historically low levels, Freddie Mac said in a recent report.

Data from Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed that average rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) increased slightly to an even 4.00 percent this week (the week ending November 17, 2011) after coming in at 3.99 percent last week.

The 3.99 percent average last week marked the second time of 2011 that 30-year rates dipped below 4 percent. The only other time that rates fell under 4 percent came in early October, when rates hit a low of 3.94 percent.

Average rates for 15-year FRMs also inched up this week – to 3.31 percent after averaging 3.30 percent the previous week. Las Read more…

Tags: Mortgage Rates, Week

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IRS Back Tax and the Innocuous Estimated Tax Payments

November 12th, 2011

As we have been mentioning you have three alternatives to negotiate your back taxes. You can do a straight installment agreement which usually means that you pay all your tax debt to the IRS. 

Your tax resolution can be an offer in compromise which basically means paying not all the taxes that you owe the IRS but some of it. Finally, you have the currently not collectible option which is one of the ways to negotiate an IRS tax relief. 

The mechanics of doing this can be tricky. You have to use what is called expense standards. They IRS has national standards for certain expenses that you must not exceed such as food. They also have local standards such as housing which correctly differ for  one place to another. So

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Tags: Back Tax, Tax

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Best Website to Get Small Business Loans

November 10th, 2011

Business industry has undergone a significant progress today. Due to that, you can see a large number of new commercial companies throughout the world including on the internet. The emersion of the companies proves that there is a huge chance to grab in this business. Moreover, getting job in the office is really difficult today because of the strict competition. That is why building your own company can be really best solution for you.

The best is that the need of money as your modal can be solved for sure with the help of Business Loans. It is true that there will be countless money lending companies which will offer you the service of Business Loans and Personal Loans.

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Tags: Business, Business Loans

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Media release: Workers watching their backs as Westpac announces record profit

November 8th, 2011

Workers who helped deliver Westpac’s biggest ever profit should not be the next victims of the cost cutting machine, the Finance Sector Union said today.

Acting FSU National Secretary Chris Gambian said Westpac’s full year net profit of $6.991 billion, a 10% increase on last year’s figure, is a great result that was made possible by the contribution of the of bank’s 30,000-plus workforce.

“It’s incredibly disappointing that the productivity plans announced today mean the same employees that helped deliver this great result are now watching their backs lest they become the next victim of the bank’s cost cutting,” said Mr Gambian.

“Given the bank has just announced its biggest ever profit there is no excuse for cutting costs, cutting jobs or cutting services to customers.”

Westpac has reduced job numbers by over 1,000 in the preceding year, and while the bank says it is pushing ahead with productivity plans that will include “outsourcing of some activities” the bank’s report to investors today does not provide any detail on which operational areas are at risk or which jobs will be targeted. 

“Westpac should come clean about their plans for the coming year and stop fudging the issue with weasel words. The language clearly indicat

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Tags: Profit

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Chase is about to ignore your privacy settings

November 6th, 2011

David Lazarus of the Los Angeles Times reports that Chase bank is contacting customers who already opted out of receiving marketing material–to let them know they’re about to receive more marketing material.

In his column “Banks keep pulling from bag of tricks,” Lazarus writes that the letters being sent to the opted-out customers say that the bank wants “to be sure that you know about available offers and that you have the opportunity to consider them.”

It’s thus giving customers until Dec. 15 to once again register their privacy preferences. “If you do no

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Tags: Chase, Chase Ignore

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Chicago-Area 2Q Home Prices Fall 16.6%

November 3rd, 2011

Sales of second-quarter existing homes in the Chicago area fell 16.6 percent from the same period last year, to 19,799 homes sold, the Illinois Association of Realtors said Wednesday.

The median price of all single-family homes and condominiums sold in the nine-county region also recorded a double-digit fall, dropping 13.3 percent to $170,000.

Within the city of Chicago, home sales dropped 23.7 percent, to 5,010 sales and the median price of $190,000 was a 17.4 percent drop from the $230,000 recorded in the comparable 2010 period.

Tags: Chicagoarea 2q, Home

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