Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Thursday, October 1, 1998
30-year mortgage rates fall further, at 6.6%
WASHINGTON -- The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 6.60 percent this week from last week's 6.64 percent, according to a weekly survey by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.That's the lowest since March 1968, when the monthly average for the 30-year mortgage rate was 6.52 percent, Freddie Mac said.
Over the next three months, "you may be able to see a half percent drop in interest rates without a stock market rally," said Barry Habib, the president of Certified Mortgage Associates, based in Marlboro, N.J.
The latest report also showed the average rate on a one-year adjustable mortgage fell to 5.39 percent this week from 5.42 percent last week. The 15-year mortgage rate fell to 6.27 percent from 6.32 percent.
Analysts said low mortgage rates gives consumers a clear incentive to buy a house: This week's rate put the average principal and interest payment on a $100,000 loan at $638.66, compared with last year's $686.25 -- when the 30-year mortgage was at 7.31 percent the week ended Oct. 3, 1997.
Fed survey reveals business credit crunch
WASHINGTON -- A survey of bank lending conducted before this week's interest-rate cut detected signs of what could be the start of a business credit crunch, a Federal Reserve report suggested today."Results indicate that there has been a fairly widespread tightening of standards and terms for commercial and industrial loans to larger firms," the Fed said.
It routinely conducts such surveys of senior loan officers at large banks every three months, but today's was a special survey, taken in mid-September "to assess the impact of recent financial turbulence on the bank loan market."
While large companies' ability to borrow is being pinched, the survey "revealed little change in standards and terms for ... loans to small firms or in banks' willingness to provide consumer installment loans," the Fed said.
Number of wealthy Americans up 14%
WASHINGTON -- More than 1.3 million American taxpayers can now say they're part of the upper crust. That's the number of taxpayers who reported an adjusted gross income of $200,000 or more in 1995 -- the most recent year available -- according to new Internal Revenue Service statistics. That's up 14 percent from 1994.In all, returns from the wealthiest segment of the population amounted to only about 1.1 percent of total tax returns that year, but they paid a total of $182.5 billion in federal taxes.
The IRS report released yesterday says 998 of the top earners paid no U.S. income taxes at all.
Financial guru wins plagiarism lawsuit
TACOMA, Wash. -- Financial guru Wade Cook was awarded $655,900 by federal court jurors who found a rival self-improvement lecturer plagiarized two of Cook's catch phrases.
Cook, of Tukwila, claimed Anthony Robbins had stolen two financial concepts that were described by the catch phrases "meter drop" and "rolling stocks."
The jury yesterday awarded the money to Cook after three hours of deliberation in U.S. District Judge Jack Tanner's court.
The jury declared Robbins, a San Diego-based motivational expert, illegally copied the concepts and copyright phrases from Cook's best-selling book, "Wall Street Money Machine," and used them in his own financial seminar workbook, "Financial Power."
Sam Georges, chief operating officer of the Anthony Robbins Cos., said Robbins would appeal.
Honda once again tops list of stolen cars
DETROIT -- Car thieves continue to like Honda and Toyota cars, but are also partial to domestic light trucks, according to a survey released yesterday.The National Insurance Crime Bureau said the Honda Accord was the most stolen vehicle nationwide in 1997. It's followed by the Toyota Camry, Oldsmobile Cutlass, Honda Civic and Ford Mustang. Other vehicles that rank in the top 10 include the Chevrolet C/K pickup, the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Ford F-series pickup.
See expanded coverage in today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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