Summary List Placement A 2,000-square-foot apartment is a unicorn in New York City, but when Rachel Martino nabbed such a gem last June, she didn’t know what to do with it. “I was so excited to start decorating, but I realized I was a bit in over my head because it was such a big […]
Summary List Placement Alexandria Mavin heard from her high-school teachers that there was a path to the American Dream. If she went to college, graduated, and got an office job, she would get there. She graduated with $117,000 in student debt as a down payment for that dream. Now 32 years old and a property manager, she’s paid back $70,000 […]
Summary List Placement Treasury Secretary and former Chair of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen will support another term for her successor Jerome Powell as head of the US central bank, according to a report from Bloomberg on Saturday. Yellen made such comments to senior White House advisors, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. […]
Summary List Placement The huge shortage of restaurant workers has led to a “bidding war” for staff that’s driving wages up across the industry, the owner of a burger chain said. “Your restaurant neighbor next door might offer $1 more, then you go back and offer $1 more over that to just retain your people,” […]
Summary List Placement A diner left a $10,000 tip at a seafood restaurant in Gainesville, northern Florida, CBS4 first reported. Shawn Shepherd, the owner of Wahoo Seafood, told Newsweek that the diner asked to see the 10 members of restaurant staff that were working during his visit on Tuesday. “He said he appreciated that they […]
Summary List Placement As many Millennials are wont to do when embarking on a project for the first time, Alex Strunce and Hayley Swanson turn to YouTube. But when it comes to renovations on the mid-century ranch house the couple bought this summer in Madison, Wisconsin, things are not always as easy as they seem […]
Summary List Placement Pressure on companies to introduce vaccine mandates is mounting amid the spread of the Delta variant. Staff at tech giants Uber, Google, and Facebook need to be vaccinated before they can return to the office, while Houston Methodist Hospital hit the headlines in late March after it became one of the first […]
Summary List Placement Michella Stewart has been unemployed since March 2020, thanks to the harsh realities of being a working mom of five during a global pandemic. For more than a year, she got by on the expanded federal benefits meant to help more workers — and provide them relief longer — as the pandemic […]
Summary List Placement In a huge setback for Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch ruled Friday that Proposition 22, a measure that allowed gig companies to classify their app-based drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, is unconstitutional. In a lawsuit filed by the Service Employees International Union, Roesch ruled […]
Summary List Placement Over 1,000 workers at Nabisco bakeries across the US are on strike. Nabisco workers — who are unionized with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) — began striking over what they say are contract issues with Mondelez International, Nabisco’s parent company. They’re currently in the process of […]
The mortgage market had a stunning year in 2020, with closed-end originations increasing by 65.2% from the year prior, a Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) report published by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this week disclosed. But some of the industry’s same problems remained in 2020. According to the report, comprised of data provided by […]
Congratulations to all of the entrepreneurs, founders and executives who have survived the onslaught of phone calls, emails and DMs from first-year private equity associates (yeah… we’re looking at you Summit Partners….). But hey, growth equity firms and potential acquirers blowing up your cell phone is certainly not the worst thing in the world. The […]
Summary List Placement In the past six months, Cheslea Lynn says she made over $200,000 from OnlyFans. The platform took 20% of her earnings, or nearly $42,000, she said. On Thursday, Lynn found out from a news article that OnlyFans would be banning porn. OnlyFans said in a statement to Insider it will prohibit users […]
Summary List Placement Tesla CEO Elon Musk is stepping behind the universal basic income movement because of the potential rise of robots — in fact, he’s working on one himself. During a Thursday presentation on artificial intelligence (AI) hosted by Tesla, Musk said he is working on creating a “Tesla Bot,” or a robot that […]
Summary List Placement The stock market’s rebound minted a record number of retirement-account millionaires this year, according to new data from Fidelity. The number of 401(k) accounts with at least $1 million rocketed to 412,000 in the second quarter, the broker said in a Thursday report. That’s the most seven-figure balances on record and compares […]
Summary List Placement Most Americans are considering leaving their jobs, a survey by PwC released Thursday suggested. Nearly two in three – 65% – of the 1,007 full-time and part-time employees PwC surveyed said they were looking for a new job. The top reason employees gave for considering quitting was to get paid more. They […]
Summary List Placement While companies are figuring out whether they should require workers to get vaccinated and what exactly is the plan for employees returning to the office, a new poll found that over half of workers are in favor of their work requiring all employees get the jab. A Gallup poll of over 1,800 […]
Summary List Placement A series of for-profit colleges have shut down in recent years amid accusations of fraud, mismanagement, and misleading students into taking on student debt they can’t pay off. A top Democrat wants to make these schools’ executives pay. On Monday, House Education and Labor Committee Chair Bobby Scott wrote a letter to […]
Christian Wallace, Head of Real Estate Services at Better.com Better.com, a digital mortgage lender that is set to go public later this year, unveiled Thursday another expansion of its in-house real estate group, one that has a unique business model in the world of brokerage. The seven-year-old, New York City-based company will also soon provide […]
Summary List Placement Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh confirmed on Thursday that President Joe Biden won’t extend unemployment benefits beyond September 6. But at the same time, they encouraged states to keep helping unemployed people beyond that date. Walsh and Yellen wrote a letter to the House and Senate finance committee […]
Summary List Placement As part of his American Rescue Plan, President Joe Biden extended $300 weekly unemployment benefits through September 6. Top officials in his administration confirmed on Thursday that he won’t be extending the benefits any further. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh wrote a letter to the chairs of the […]
Delinquency rates for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties shrank across the board to 5.47% in the second quarter, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association survey published this week. Compared to the previous quarter, the delinquency rate dropped 91 basis points and was down a whopping 275 bps from a year ago. The results are […]
Summary List Placement Around 31 million more households didn’t have to pay federal income taxes in 2020 than in 2019. That’s a 40% increase, according to new data from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. According to data from the think tank, 106.8 million households owed no federal income taxes in 2020, or 61% of households who […]
Summary List Placement US Sen. Bernie Sanders is leaving Vermont to pitch the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion reconciliation package to Republican voters in Indiana and Iowa. Sanders, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, has called the proposal the “most significant piece of legislation… since the Great Depression.” Financed by tax hikes on the wealthy and large […]
The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage declined slightly to 2.86% for the week ending in August 19, according to mortgage rates data released Thursday by Freddie Mac‘s PMMS. The week prior, mortgage rates rose to 2.87%, after six consecutive weeks of mortgage rate declines. This week’s slight decline tracks closely with downward-trending U.S. Treasury yields. The […]
Summary List Placement Even if they didn’t finish college, Black student-loan borrowers carry the same debt burden as a white adults with an advanced degree. That’s what two statisticians found after analyzing US Census data on the burden of student loan debt before the pandemic. They also learned that women — Black women in particular […]
Summary List Placement The number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance dropped to a new pandemic-era low last week as the latest surge in virus cases did little to dent the labor market’s rebound. Weekly jobless claims totaled an unadjusted 348,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected claims to drop […]
Summary List Placement Today’s inflation debate, largely over whether the run-up is transitory or not, is a distraction. It’s not about the inflation per se, but how policymakers respond to it. The more pertinent discussion is the rate of inflation the Federal Reserve is willing to tolerate to achieve maximum employment. How high above their […]
Summary List Placement The owner of a seafood trailer in Bellingham, Washington, told The Bellingham Herald that supply-chain chaos had forced him to change his menu, stockpile supplies, and hike prices. On top of that, he decided to close one day a week to make sure he doesn’t run out of food, he said. Steven […]
Summary List Placement There’s an end in sight for the Federal Reserve’s drastic economic support. A majority of the central bank’s policymakers determined late last month the Fed could start reducing the amount of money it’s feeding into the economy as early as this year, minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s July meeting showed Wednesday. […]
We’re living through a very interesting time in the U.S. housing industry. The global pandemic hit our industry like a pair of defibrillator paddles, bringing mortgage industry CFOs to life and sending millions of dollars into new technology investment and implementation. The old debate over the primacy of best-of-breed tech stacks versus an all-in-one platform […]
Summary List Placement Senator Ron Wyden wants to end homelessness in America and help out low-income renters — and he just introduced a bill to do so. The “Decent, Affordable, Safe Housing For All Act” (DASH) targets affordable housing, income-burdened renters, and first-time homeowners. It aims to house everyone currently unhoused within five years, with […]
Summary List Placement School systems across the nation are facing a shortage of bus drivers, the Washington Post reported on Monday. With the end of summer quickly approaching, some schools have been forced to push back start dates while they search for new hires. EastSide Charter School in Delaware is offering parents financial incentives to […]
Summary List Placement Despite millions of people resigning during a tightening labor market and the trend of “rage quitting,” the majority of human resources professionals and executives believe that less than 9% of employees will resign once pandemic-related restrictions lift, according to a survey done by TINYpulse. Employers might be in for a surprise, however, […]
Summary List Placement The $1 trillion infrastructure plan, in President Joe Biden’s words, “invests in the American people and their future and their success.” If investors play their cards right, they can also benefit. Bank of America analysts see 12 stocks leading the way in an infrastructure-fueled rally. The infrastructure measure won Senate approval last week, […]
The Biden administration will use its strongest tool in its toolkit to increase minority homeownership: The Federal Housing Finance Agency. The FHFA on Wednesday proposed new affordable housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, goals that would require it to “responsibly promote equitable access to affordable housing that reaches low- and moderate-income families, minority […]
Summary List Placement The Education Department announced in March that colleges could use funds from President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan to wipe out debt students owe to their schools, and since then, a growing number of colleges have been doing just that. But while institutional student debt differs from federal student debt, schools are […]
Candor, a mortgage artificial intelligence firm that has pioneered automated underwriter technology, announced a $12.5 million funding round, led by Arthur Ventures. Nearly a year ago, when Candor vaulted onto the scene, mortgage lenders were desperate to hire underwriters. Lenders offered signing bonuses to qualified underwriters and base salaries of $150,000, stunning observers. Shortly thereafter, […]
Summary List Placement The pandemic unchained Americans from their office desks and sent rental vacancies in big cities like New York and San Francisco climbing. In an attempt to curb the free fall, a record share of landlords slashed rent prices and offered concessions like months off rent and waived application fees to lure tenants […]
Mortgage applications decreased 3.9% for the week ending Aug. 13 compared to the week prior and fewer borrowers opted to refinance, according to the latest report from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Ten-year Treasury yields rose overall but tapered off slightly at the end of last week, and 30-year mortgage rates tracked by the MBA reached […]
Baird & Warner President and CEO Stephen Baird Baird & Warner lays claim to be the oldest U.S. brokerage still in operation, launching in 1855. In the 1960s, its then-executive John Baird tussled with the National Association of Realtors (NAR) over that group’s enforcement of redlining as Baird wanted to sell homes to Black people […]
Summary List Placement Jobless workers in Indiana will still receive their enhanced unemployment benefits, even after a court ruling struck down them again. Indiana was one of the 26 states to end federal benefits early, and one of the first to see its jobless residents sue to get them back. Workers there sued the state […]
Summary List Placement Rising wages sparked some concerns that higher pay for workers will translate to higher prices. Reality isn’t so clear-cut. A handful of other factors are playing a much larger role in lifting prices across the US. The Federal Reserve and the Biden administration argue the overshoot is temporary and linked to the economic […]
Summary List Placement If you want to be wealthier, becoming your own boss may pay off. A new release from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy finds that self-employed people are, on average, wealthier than their non-self-employed peers. Specifically, the median net worth for self-employed families was $380,000 in 2019; for the families of workers […]
Summary List Placement It’s a tempting world out there for Henrys. Short for “high earner, not rich yet,” Henrys are typically millennials in their early 30s earning over $100,000 and living in urban areas. The tend to live above their means and struggle to balance saving with spending, which leaves them feeling like they’re living […]