Builders Chase Millennials By Decreasing Price Scale
Surging prices almost have closed off the new-home market to young buyers like Brandon and Quincey Lindemann. But the Denver-area couple has found a way in. The Lindemanns in October paid $350,000 for a three-bedroom house at Tri Pointe Group Inc.’s Terrain, a new Castle Rock, Colo., community designed for first-time buyers. While the home has press-board kitchen counters and a yard too small for the children the Lindemanns plan to...
The HR Pro: Big Overtime Rule Change Could Mean a Big Change to Your Bottom Line
Employers across New Hampshire, Vermont and the country are about to see big changes in overtime pay. Earlier this year, President Obama signed an executive order directing the Department of Labor to update the overtime rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The most significant proposed change for employers is that salaried employees making less than $50,440 annually will become eligible for overtime pay beginning in 2016. The...
Fed Vice Chair: Rate Increase Possible
Washington — Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer left the door open Saturday for a Fed rate increase in September, saying the factors that have kept inflation below the central bank’s target level have likely begun to fade. Fischer said there’s “good reason to believe that inflation will move higher as the forces holding down inflation dissipate further.” He said, for example, that some effects of a stronger dollar and a...
A Crossover That Measures Up
The Nissan Rogue has a name that’s the antithesis of its look. There’s nothing rogue about it. And that’s a good thing. Or at least consumers think so. Since the vehicle’s launch in 2007, annual sales have climbed from 73,000 to more than 200,000. That trend has continued, according to the latest numbers, with June sales up 54.3 percent compared to June 2014. Annual sales are up 36.3 percent. So what do drivers find so fetching about...
U.S. Housing-Market Recovery Hits 8-Year High
Washington — America’s housing-market recovery is in full swing. Purchases of previously owned homes climbed 3.2 percent in June to a 5.49 million annualized rate, the strongest since February 2007, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. Lean inventory pushed prices to an all-time high and listed properties were snapped up in just 34 days on average, the quickest in four years of record-keeping. A broad-based advance,...
