According to Homebuyer.com, Iowa is the cheapest state to buy a house in right now. The Good Brigade | Digitalvision | Getty Images With mortgage rates rising, more people may be asking themselves the age old question: rent or buy? These decisions are particularly pertinent amid bubble-like housing prices, making monthly mortgage payments more difficult
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Beneath all the clamor over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the efforts to tamp down inflation, investors are largely passing over a huge story in China, famed short-seller Jim Chanos said Wednesday. Troubles in the Chinese real estate market are a distant third to the war and rate hikes targeted at containing inflation. But Chanos,
Municipal triple-A yield curves saw another round of cuts Tuesday amid elevated secondary selling pressure, pushing one-year munis to end the session above 3%. U.S. Treasuries and equities saw losses after more hawkish Fed speak and a continued global bond rout. Triple-A yields rose by as many as seven to eight basis points across the
Under the oversight of a state review board, the troubled finances of West Haven, Connecticut, are moving in the right direction, according to Moody’s Investors Service, which last week affirmed the city’s Baa3 general obligation bond rating after a two-month review. Financial mismanagement and federal corruption charges have dogged the New Haven suburb, which is
The Senate Tuesday advanced a government funding bill ahead of a midnight Friday deadline that includes disaster aid for the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, Hurricane Ian’s looming landfall in Florida and other natural disasters. The bill advanced after Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., agreed to drop his controversial provision to speed up permitting on
Highlighted by Hurricane Ian, which wreaked havoc in the Caribbean and now threatens Florida, the U.S. public power sector faces challenges that are unprecedented but not insurmountable, according to speakers at a recent annual public power community conference in Manhattan. Inflation, the reliability of power grids and the impact of environmental social and governance requirements
With federal approval in hand, states are poised to begin work on the buildout of a 75,000-mile, coast-to-coast national electric vehicle charging network. The U.S. Department of Transportation Tuesday gave approval to the final 17 states’ EV charging station plans, and announced that now all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have
Edward Bedore steered Chicago’s finances under both mayors with the Daley name, had a hand in milestone city projects and spearheaded creation of the Chicago Summer Business Institute to give inner city students an introduction to finance careers. He died earlier this month. He was 84. Bedore served several stints with the city, first as
Meredith Hathorn will be taking over for Patrick Brett as chair of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board Oct. 1, bringing her nearly forty years of public finance experience to the role. “What I really want to do is highlight the value of being an SRO (self-regulatory organization), and continuing to earn the public trust,” said
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said he backs raising rates by a further 1.25 percentage points by the end of this year to counter inflation that has been worse than he expected. “The lack of progress thus far has me thinking much more now that we have to get to a moderately
Municipals were mixed Wednesday as a large primary calendar led by deals from the Texas Water Development Board and state of Illinois took the focus away from the secondary, while outflows ramped up to $2.7 billion, the largest figure since late June. U.S. Treasuries rallied hard with yields falling up to a quarter-point and equities
Puerto Rico bankruptcy Judge Laura Taylor Swain said she would approve a three-pronged approach to advancing the more than five-year-old Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority bankruptcy with a plan confirmation due by June 2023. Swain said there should be litigation on two key issues, the development of a plan of adjustment with several versions, and
European stocks and government bond prices turned lower on Thursday, after the Bank of England intervened to calm turmoil in gilts trading, sparking a rally that had rippled into other global financial markets. The Stoxx Europe 600 share gauge fell 1.1 per cent in early dealings, after the regional gauge ended the previous session 0.3
The writer is director of the London School of Economics and Political Science and a former deputy governor of the Bank of England The government’s recent fiscal plan fails to respond to the UK’s twin economic crises in a manner that takes into account either evidence or experience. While they are absolutely right to focus
Banks have been waiting years for a rising interest rate environment to boost revenues and margins. That time has finally come. Just not how they expected. The Bank of England base rate is already up from 0.25 per cent at the start of the year to 2.25 per cent. Since Kwasi Kwarteng’s “fiscal event” last
When Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget sent UK government bonds plunging, the chancellor said “markets will react as they will”. Five days later, the Bank of England stepped in to prevent chaotic drops in gilts prices from stinging pension funds and threatening financial stability. A rout that began with Kwarteng’s package of energy subsidies and tax cuts
A pension meltdown forced the Bank of England to intervene in gilt markets on Wednesday. Executives told the Financial Times that markets barely dodged a Lehman-Brothers-like collapse – but this time with your mum’s pension at the centre of the drama. Problems with “pension plumbing” are what caused the mess. The culprit is said to
The Bank of England’s intervention in the bond markets on Wednesday has headed off an immediate funding crisis for final salary pension schemes, but has focused people’s fears on how the fallout from the government’s mini-Budget could affect their retirement savings. Why did the BoE intervene to protect final salary pension schemes? The bank took
The Bank of England went into full financial crisis mode on Wednesday, rushing out an announcement that the central bank was restarting its money printing presses at “whatever scale is necessary”, and later confirming it was planning up to £65bn of new quantitative easing. Ministers have tried saying recent financial turbulence was global, but no
The Bank of England took emergency action on Wednesday to avoid a meltdown in the UK pensions sector, unleashing a £65bn bond-buying programme to stem a crisis in government debt markets. The central bank warned of a “material risk to UK financial stability” from turmoil in the gilts market sparked by chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s tax