Existing home sales fell in September, but remain well ahead of their pace of one year ago, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has reported.

Completed sales of previously owned homes were down 3.0 percent for the month, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.91 million units. That represents a 11.3 percent annual increase over the September 2010 level of 4.41 million units.   Sales figures for August were also revised upward to 5.06 million units, up 5.03 million reported last month.   September’s rise occurred despite reduced purchasing activity by investors, who accounted for 19 percent of all sales, down from 22 percent in August. Dis Read the full post

Existing Home, Existing Home Sales, Home Sales, Sales

Savings Accounts and Money Market Rates provided by 10 October 2011 American banks have taken some heat recently over the decision to increase fees on services that have traditionally been free. DailyFinance.com reports that one of the unintended effects of the move has been a sudden increase in interest in online banking.

PerkStreet Financial, an online bank founded in 2009, told the news source that it saw its daily activity double when the announcement from Bank of American came on Friday, September 30.

“The Bank of America news woke everyone up and spurred change,” Dan OMalley, PerkStreets chief executive officer, told DailyFinance.

Though online banks like PerkStreet have some limitations in terms of customer service and certain physical transactions such as checking, the move has so far allowed them to maintain some of the benefits that customers have been outraged to lose at larger banks. Read the full post

Fee, Fee Uproar

Australian banking major CBA has announced an ambitious plan to become an incumbent in the segment for self managed superannuation funds, after agreeing to purchase the listed financial planning network Count Financial for $373 million.

The deal was struck after the lender asked its advisers to seek out potential targets that would serve to build its wealth management offering, which currently includes Colonial First State.

The transaction has been approved unanimously by the Count Financial board independent directors.

Barry Lambert, Count Financial’s founder will pocket as much as $75 million from his 17.8 per cent stake sale, which will be sold to CBA. H

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Ambitious, Ambitious Strategy

Here’s a great article I was reading about interest rates.  Some of the best minds around suggest that interest rates should stay low until unemployment drops below 7 percent.  At the way things have been going this doesn’t look like it will happen very soon.  So if you’re thinking of buying a house or car you don’t need to rush.  Low interest rates should be here to stay for a while.

 

The Federal Reserve may need to be even more aggressive in its easing policies than it has been so far unless the economy shows significant improvement, Chicago Fed President Charles Evans told CNBC.

A jobless rate at 9.1 percent is \”consistent with recession\” while inflation is far from a worry, Evans said while defending both the central bank’s previous actions to stimulate conditions and his view that even more action along the lines of quantitative easing will be needed.

In his view, QE needs to stay in place until unemployment plunges to 7 percent or if inflation gets past 3 percent. Core inflation, wh

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Low, Should Stay, Should Stay Low, Stay Low

U.S. home prices posted a 0.8 percent gain in July, a price increase that was spread across nearly all parts of the nation.

It’s the fifth consecutive monthly gain reported by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which released the seasonally adjusted figures today. However, today’s report also downgraded a 0.9 percent gain initially estimated for June to a 0.7 percent gain instead.   Despite the rising trend over the spring and summer, the current figures still represent an annual decline of 3.3 percent from July 2010. On a national basis, the U.S. home price index is now at roughly the same level it was in March 2004 and is 18.4 percent down from its peak in April 2007. During the current rise, the U.S. home Read the full post

Home Prices, Prices

Savings Accounts and Money Market Rates provided by 21 September 2011 Capital One offered a defense to Congress on Tuesday, September 20, of its proposed merger with ING Direct USA, according to The New York Times.

ING has been looking to sell its American branch for months as the company attempts to meet requirements placed upon it by the bailout it received from the Dutch government.

Capital One agreed to buy the bank in June for $9 billion in stock and cash, but the Federal Reserve and Congress quickly raised concerns about the potential for the deal to create another “too-big-to-fail” bank. Read the full post

Ing Direct, Merger