Mortgage applications slipped 4% for the week ending March 29 as refinancing activity dropped, an industry trade group said.
Home purchase demand, on the other hand, continued to edge higher, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.
The refinance index dropped 6% after growing 8% last week. Meanwhile, the purchase index continued to escalate, increasing 1%.
"Total purchase applications increased last week, due to an almost 7% increase in purchase applications for government loans. This was likely driven by borrowers applying for loans prior to the scheduled increase in FHA premiums that took effect on April 1," said Mike Fratantoni, MBA?s vice president of research and economics.
He continued saying, "On a year-over-year basis, purchase applications are up about 4%, in line with the trend we are seeing in home sales volumes."
Even with declining refinancings, Capital Economics analysts saw room for optimism. "While the refinancing book is coming off the boil, we're optimistic that mortgage applications for home purchases are in the early stages of a sustainable comeback."
The refinance share of overall mortgage activity inched down to 74%.
The adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity remained at 5% of total applications.
Meanwhile, the average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage with a conforming loan balance fell to 3.76% from 3.79%.
The average 30-year, FRM with a jumbo loan balance dropped to 3.85%, compared to 3.90% last week.
The average contract interest rate for the 30-year, FRM backed by the FHA also sank to 3.48%.
Additionally, the 15-year, FRM dropped to 2.99%, and the 5/1 ARM escalated to 2.60% from 2.58%.?
NRC panel advises US DOD on green buildingsPublic release date: 2-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Janet Lathrop jlathrop@admin.umass.edu 413-545-0444 University of Massachusetts at Amherst
New recommendations by a National Research Council expert panel on green and sustainable building performance could lead to a revolution in building science by creating the first large building performance database
AMHERST, Mass. New recommendations by a National Research Council (NRC) expert panel on green and sustainable building performance could lead to a revolution in building science by creating the first large building performance database, says panel member Paul Fisette, a nationally recognized sustainable building expert at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Fisette and six other NRC panel members were asked to consider whether nearly 500,000 structures owned by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) worldwide are being operated as sustainably and as efficiently as possible according to a number of green building standards, including Green Globes, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).
Fisette and colleagues recently completed their nine-month assessment of energy efficiency, water use and many other sustainability factors at about 300,000 of the DOD facilities. One of their top recommendations is that the department should start metering such variables as energy and water use, to collect information on how different facilities perform in many different environments.
"One of the things we learned from this study is that the Defense Department is the perfect organization to be able to provide us with ongoing data," he says. "They are a single owner of a lot of property and they have control over how it's operated, along with costs, uses and standards. What is lacking in building science has been this consistent set of data, really large samples over time."
The NRC panel wrote, "DOD has the opportunity to continue to take a leadership role in improving the knowledge base about high-performance buildings, improving decision-support tools and improving building models by collecting data on measured energy, water and other resource use for its portfolio of buildings and by collaborating with others."
Panelists "pored through mounds and mounds of data," Fisette says, looking at building history and performance, comparing LEED to non-LEED certified buildings for evidence of a cost benefit to certification and identifying potential paybacks for adopting sustainable practices, for example. "In general, our findings and recommendations definitely support the idea that it is cost effective to design sustainability into these buildings," he notes.
But while building green is cost effective, "there certainly needs to be deeper, more meaningful scientific study, because there are a lot of variables and if you're not careful you can end up not achieving the environmental outcomes you had hoped for," he adds. "You need to be able to strictly measure performance to justify the environmental outcome."
DOD can help with this going forward, Fisette adds. "They have facilities all over world in different climates, their structures have an amazingly wide variety uses from barracks and offices to missile silos and underground launch control centers. In our report, we encourage them to take advantage of all this and start metering. If they start now, in five or 10 years we'd have a tremendous resource. Because right now there's a basic lack of good scientific data on how buildings perform. It would be a huge contribution to the green building movement going forward."
Fisette has been professionally involved in building science for more than 30 years, starting as a general contractor during the oil-embargoed, energy-conscious 1970s. "I was building solar homes across New England before it was popular," he recalls. Then as editor of the magazine Progressive Builder (formerly Solar Age) he grew more interested in the science and theory of building design and performance on an industry and global scale.
"I like to study how buildings work," he says. "People like me are systems thinkers. When you decide to turn a light on, everything cascades from that one motion, and it has everything to do with energy, water and the environment, from the wall switch all the way out to fish ladders and hydro dams. We can't talk about or address any environmental challenges without dealing with energy and water."
Now an associate dean for the UMass Amherst College of Natural Sciences, Fisette's recent NRC work marks his fifth stint of volunteer service to the national research agency, including a panel to assess health and productivity benefits of green schools. He also served two, three-year terms as a member of NRC's umbrella organization National Academy of Sciences' Board of Infrastructure and Constructed Environment, a strategy group for guiding policy and research.
"I'm proud to be a contributor to these efforts," Fisette says. "It's public service that makes me feel good."
###
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NRC panel advises US DOD on green buildingsPublic release date: 2-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Janet Lathrop jlathrop@admin.umass.edu 413-545-0444 University of Massachusetts at Amherst
New recommendations by a National Research Council expert panel on green and sustainable building performance could lead to a revolution in building science by creating the first large building performance database
AMHERST, Mass. New recommendations by a National Research Council (NRC) expert panel on green and sustainable building performance could lead to a revolution in building science by creating the first large building performance database, says panel member Paul Fisette, a nationally recognized sustainable building expert at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Fisette and six other NRC panel members were asked to consider whether nearly 500,000 structures owned by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) worldwide are being operated as sustainably and as efficiently as possible according to a number of green building standards, including Green Globes, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).
Fisette and colleagues recently completed their nine-month assessment of energy efficiency, water use and many other sustainability factors at about 300,000 of the DOD facilities. One of their top recommendations is that the department should start metering such variables as energy and water use, to collect information on how different facilities perform in many different environments.
"One of the things we learned from this study is that the Defense Department is the perfect organization to be able to provide us with ongoing data," he says. "They are a single owner of a lot of property and they have control over how it's operated, along with costs, uses and standards. What is lacking in building science has been this consistent set of data, really large samples over time."
The NRC panel wrote, "DOD has the opportunity to continue to take a leadership role in improving the knowledge base about high-performance buildings, improving decision-support tools and improving building models by collecting data on measured energy, water and other resource use for its portfolio of buildings and by collaborating with others."
Panelists "pored through mounds and mounds of data," Fisette says, looking at building history and performance, comparing LEED to non-LEED certified buildings for evidence of a cost benefit to certification and identifying potential paybacks for adopting sustainable practices, for example. "In general, our findings and recommendations definitely support the idea that it is cost effective to design sustainability into these buildings," he notes.
But while building green is cost effective, "there certainly needs to be deeper, more meaningful scientific study, because there are a lot of variables and if you're not careful you can end up not achieving the environmental outcomes you had hoped for," he adds. "You need to be able to strictly measure performance to justify the environmental outcome."
DOD can help with this going forward, Fisette adds. "They have facilities all over world in different climates, their structures have an amazingly wide variety uses from barracks and offices to missile silos and underground launch control centers. In our report, we encourage them to take advantage of all this and start metering. If they start now, in five or 10 years we'd have a tremendous resource. Because right now there's a basic lack of good scientific data on how buildings perform. It would be a huge contribution to the green building movement going forward."
Fisette has been professionally involved in building science for more than 30 years, starting as a general contractor during the oil-embargoed, energy-conscious 1970s. "I was building solar homes across New England before it was popular," he recalls. Then as editor of the magazine Progressive Builder (formerly Solar Age) he grew more interested in the science and theory of building design and performance on an industry and global scale.
"I like to study how buildings work," he says. "People like me are systems thinkers. When you decide to turn a light on, everything cascades from that one motion, and it has everything to do with energy, water and the environment, from the wall switch all the way out to fish ladders and hydro dams. We can't talk about or address any environmental challenges without dealing with energy and water."
Now an associate dean for the UMass Amherst College of Natural Sciences, Fisette's recent NRC work marks his fifth stint of volunteer service to the national research agency, including a panel to assess health and productivity benefits of green schools. He also served two, three-year terms as a member of NRC's umbrella organization National Academy of Sciences' Board of Infrastructure and Constructed Environment, a strategy group for guiding policy and research.
"I'm proud to be a contributor to these efforts," Fisette says. "It's public service that makes me feel good."
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Learning financial literacy is a sure bet thanks to the FINRA Investor Education Foundation
Posted Mon, 04/01/2013 - 15:19
The demise of many manufacturing jobs during the recent recession and the continued downturn of Michigan?s economy left Jackson County suffering. Estimates showed that one in four children in the county lived below the poverty line. It was clear something needed to be done and the staff of Jackson (Mich.) District Library felt it could make a difference, with help from?the Smart Investing @ your library program.
Launched in 2007 by ALA and FINRA Investor Education Foundation,?Smart Investing @ your library helps create and expand community awareness of investor-education resources and services available through public libraries. Since its creation, the program?has awarded $6.96 million in grants and grown a national network of 94 programs representing more than 900 facilities that reach a service population of over 31 million. Each grant not only helps participating patrons learn more about financial responsibility, but also provides the basis for spreading those projects to other library systems through collaboration.
Jackson District Library, which was chosen in 2011, used its grant money to educate low-to-moderate-income households. Participants developed financial plans, increased their knowledge about money management and investing, and gained better access to learning resources with support from a personal-finance help-desk service and classes based on the FDIC Money Smart curriculum. ?Our grant is for two years, so we are right in the middle of our plan,? said Debby Sears, reference coordinator for the library.
?We have had success with the Money and Marriage luncheons,? she said. ?Each one has had good attendance and is presented with such a positive attitude that couples leave in good spirits regarding their ability to talk together about money.?
ALA and FINRA invite selected public libraries, nonprofit networks, public library systems, community college libraries, and state libraries to submit a grant application. Because it is a competitive program, there is no guarantee that a library will be awarded a grant. The grant amounts range from $5,000 to $100,000, and the terms last anywhere from one to two years. This competitive yet monitored process yields a range of interesting projects.
Milwaukee (Wis.) Public Library was awarded two Smart Investing @ your library grants, one in 2007 and another in 2010. With the second grant, the library staffers decided to focus their efforts on teaching teens about financial responsibility. They used the money to partner with Make-A-Difference Wisconsin and created a series of video vignettes written by teens to educate their peers. ?My recent class really seemed to be engaged when watching the videos and they helped bring home the points in the program. They have been a hit!? said Joe Schlidt, a volunteer with the Milwaukee program.
Queens (N.Y.) Library, awarded a grant in 2009, took a different approach, focusing its efforts on educating neighborhood immigrants. ?During the grant period, more than 500 people attended financial literacy programs [taught] in their own languages for maximum intake of the information,? said Joanne King, director of communications at the library. Queens Library serves residents who speak Spanish, Chinese, Bengali, Korean, and more than 100 other languages. The staff wanted to make sure that the widest possible audience would be involved.
Fifty-six sessions were held in six languages throughout the grant period. Though the average number in each class was nine people, King said that the impact of the program cannot be judged by how many bodies were in the chairs. ?We still have the collections on the shelves and they are being accessed,? said King. ?Counseling sessions are still going on via the New York City Office of Economic Empowerment. The learning is shared among other members of the participants? social group. Overall awareness of financial education in the community has been raised. All of that will add value as time goes on.?
Smart Investing @ your library was created to bring universal financial literacy to underserved populations. ?If we can help residents learn to navigate money management and discover the possibilities of finding ways to be debt-free, as well as helping them navigate computers and software, then we will be doing our job to help the community,? said Debby Sears.
For more information on the program, as well as tips, tools, and ideas, check out smartinvesting.ala.org.
JORDANBRANDESis a Chicago-based freelancer writer.
Angelina Jolie has been declared the winner in a lawsuit that alleges she stole work by Croatian journalist?James Braddock to create her directorial debut, "In the Land of Blood and Honey."
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's wine sells out in 5 hours
The actress was sued just weeks before "Blood and Honey" hit theaters in late 2011. Braddock alleged that the film about a love affair during the?Bosnian Civil War violates his copyright on a book, "The Soul Shattering." According to Braddock's lawsuit, one of the film's producers, Edin Sarkic, who has been credited in the press with helping Jolie attain the necessary permits to film in?Sarajevo, had read "The Soul Shattering" and had discussions over the possibility of creating a film adaptation of the book.
But according to a tentative decision by U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee, the works are not substantially similar, and a result, Braddock has been ordered to show cause why the action should not be dismissed with prejudice.
UPDATE: The decision has now been made final. Read the ruling in full here.
Braddock's book "Slamanje Duse" was published in 2007, and it came out in shorter form in English under the title, "The Soul Shattering." ?His work is set in 1992 in a small Bosnian village and features a Croat who is married to a Muslim when their lives are interrupted by war. Ultimately, the strength of their love brings them back together.
Gee wrote, "Although 'Blood and Honey' is also a story of love, it highlights the complications of romantic love during wartime" between its protagonists -- a Muslim artist and a Serbian military soldier.
When analyzing the plot and sequence of both works, Gee noted some of the similarities including the fact that both include escape sequences and brutal rape scenes. But that's not enough. The judge says Braddock can't have claimed to have "invented the concept of rape as a war crime" and says that whatever similarities there are in this regard don't rise to substantial similarity, "particularly in light of the fact that those overlapping concepts are commonplace in books and films depicting war."
Similarly, when analyzing theme, the judge admits some similarity but stresses the differences. "'Blood and Honey' is primarily a story of betrayal, revenge and tragedy with little or no hope, while 'Slamanje Duse' focuses on family, love and strength."
In the decision, the judge continued by exploring dialogue, the mood and the characters of both works. Parallels were drawn and then rejected as falling short.
Braddock certainly is not the first to fail in making a case for copyright infringement. Many writers have sued Hollywood studios, and judges often place the bar quite high for plaintiffs to demonstrate substantial similarity. Ideas aren't protected, only expression. And then, there are limits to that. For example, the judge pointed out that "'Slamanje Duse' is based on the experiences of a real person and historical facts" but that certain details aren't entitled to copyright protection. That both works take place during the Bosnian War, which the judge notes is "a historical event that is well documented and widely known," doesn't really get Braddock anywhere in his claims that now seem destined to fail.
Jolie and other defendants were represented by Harrison Dossick and Christine Neuharth at Reed Smith.
?The Court?s tentative ruling was thorough and well reasoned," Dossick tells THR. "We are hopeful the court will adopt it in full when the final order is issued.?
Attention, unemployed copyeditors: Macy's may soon have a job opening for you. The department store giant mailed a catalog to customers earlier this month which mistakenly offered a $1,500 sterling silver and 14-karat gold necklace for just $47. The heading: "SUPER BUY." The actual sale price was supposed to be $479, but Macy's printed the [...]
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) ? A man in a large red sedan hit two cars in the parking lot of a San Jose Wal-Mart before ramming the car through the front of the store then assaulting customers inside, officials said. The attack injured four people, one of them seriously.
The man crashed the Oldsmobile Cutlass through the storefront near the pharmacy Sunday and collided with a beer display before stopping, police and witnesses said.
The unidentified driver then got out of his car and used a blunt object to attack people, San Jose police Officer Albert Morales said. The driver was arrested when officers arrived.
Investigators have not determined how fast the driver ? described as a man in his 30s ? was going at the time of the crash but the car went about 20 feet into the Wal-Mart Supercenter that had about 70 people inside in San Jose, Morales said.
One person suffered what Morales described as serious injuries. He did not know the extent of the injuries to the three other people but said they were not life-threatening. The injured included a store employee.
There was no immediate word about what motivated the suspect.
Customer Sharon Kaye told the San Jose Mercury News the driver sideswiped her car as he made several runs around the parking lot before driving between poles at the entrance and crashing into the store.
"At first, I thought I may have done something to anger him while driving," she said. "But then I realized he was out to get into the store."
After the crash, the entrance to the Wal-Mart was roped off with yellow police tape, and workers put up large boards covering the automatic doors where the car had entered.
A Wal-Mart spokeswoman told the Mercury News that the store remained shut down for several hours, and an employee was among those hurt.
"We're obviously very concerned about the associate who was injured," spokeswoman Kory Lundberg said.
Shopper and witness Tianna Doan told the newspaper the employee was a cashier who was hit with the object and had a head injury.
Calls to the store by The Associated Press went unanswered Sunday.
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Public release date: 2-Apr-2013
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