Friday, October 16, 2009
NATION
Rates increase slightly for 30-year mortgages
WASHINGTON — Rates for 30-year home loans have inched up, but remained below 5 percent for the third-straight week as government efforts to aid the housing market continued wto keep rates low.
The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 4.92 percent this week, up from 4.87 percent a week earlier, mortgage company Freddie Mac said Thursday. Rates, while above the record low of 4.78 percent hit in the spring, are still attractive for people looking to buy a home or refinance.
The average rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 4.37 percent, from 4.33 percent last week, according to Freddie Mac.
Microsoft to restore lost Sidekick data to users
SAN FRANCISCO — There may be a happy ending after all for owners of Sidekick phones who thought they might have permanently lost contact numbers and other personal information they had put on the gadget.
Earlier this week, T-Mobile said information stored by many Sidekick owners was “almost certainly” gone for good after a failure of the computers that remotely stored the data.
But Microsoft Corp., whose Danger Inc. subsidiary makes the phones that are sold through T-Mobile USA, said Thursday it recovered “most, if not all” of the missing data and will restore it as soon as it validates the information. Microsoft also apologized for the glitch.
Associated Press