A recession could be on the way. Or it could not.

Economists have been predicting and prognosticating for months, some saying the economy will recede later this year, while others point to 2024. If it does happen, most agree it will be mild, not to the level of job losses from the 2007-09 Great Recession.

Regardless which forecast is right, ...Read more

Time is a crucial ingredient for building wealth. But these economic times for millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996, have not been auspicious.

Culprits included the 2018 Great Recession, which took off just as many were graduating from college or in the early days of their careers. Add to that the huge student-loan debt load that so ...Read more

Twelve new townhouses line a block of Coconut Avenue. Lushly landscaped, outfitted with high-end appliances and spacious closets, they’re in move-in condition. Yet the Coconut City Villas are empty, as empty as their backyard swimming pools and unsullied trash bins sitting in unoccupied driveways.

Instead of “For Sale” signs, house ...Read more

After the back-to-back named storms last year left billions of dollars in flood losses across Florida, one organization is warning that major reforms are needed to government regulations and flood insurance, especially inland as climate change makes storms wetter and more powerful.

As of January, FEMA, which administers the National Flood ...Read more

Kari Snyder really didn’t want to spend $62,000 on this vacant rowhouse.

She was on vacation last summer in a beach town and was supposed to be eating dinner with her family when a middleman called her. The boarded-up house in Southeast Baltimore was on the verge of collapsing, and he had the contract to sell it. Snyder couldn’t stomach ...Read more

Three suspects have been charged in what investigators say was an elaborate scheme to steal Broward County, Florida properties with fraudulent quit claim deeds, liens and litigation.

The three arrested suspects — Tyrone Jones, 44, of Fort Lauderdale, Michael Dupree, 51, of Riverview, and Yury Domatov, 50, of Dania Beach — are accused in the...Read more

U.S. mortgage rates declined for the first time in five weeks, helping propel a measure of home-purchase applications to the highest in a month.

The contract rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell 8 basis points to 6.71%, according to Mortgage Bankers Association data released Wednesday. The group’s index of mortgage applications for the ...Read more

The poor risk management at Silicon Valley Bank is stunning. But what went wrong is actually pretty common. There is often confusion about what makes a safe asset versus a risky one, and guessing wrong is often at the core of financial blow-ups. Safe assets, as we properly define them, are the backbone of financial markets; they are how we price...Read more

It's never a good sign when "bank collapse" is trending on Twitter.

Such was the case Monday as investors pummeled shares of First Republic Bank and Western Alliance Bancorporation, among several other regional financial institutions. Evidently, they feared that these banks would suffer the same fate as Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, Calif...Read more

It's not just the Federal Reserve that can fight inflation — consumers can, too, by changing their buying habits, Deloitte researchers say.

Consistent frugal behaviors by enough people can force retailers and manufacturers to keep prices, and profit margins, in check. But a new longitudinal study by Deloitte found not everyone is curtailing ...Read more

The housing market is on the fritz – again.

Mortgage rates rose for the fifth consecutive week, sending the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to 6.73%, according to Freddie Mac’s latest data, released March 9. That’s up 0.08% from the previous week and 2.8% compared to this time last year.

At the same time, other parts of the economy continue ...Read more

This fall, as John Y.K. Lee realized his electric bill had doubled, he finally decided to invest in solar panels.

For years, the neurosurgeon had thought about installing them on his family’s Havertown, Pennsylvania, home. But he sped up his timeline in the past year.

“All of a sudden there is all this perturbance in the energy market,” ...Read more

Jeremy Seghers didn’t have much of a choice about moving his home insurance to the state-run insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance. His broker explained it was the only policy he could get after his previous company, Southern Fidelity Insurance, was liquidated by the state last year.

“They told me, ‘Citizens is it. It’s ...Read more

LARGO, Florida – Inflation, no inflation, recession, stimulus, pandemic, whatever may come: “In here it always stays the same,” said Tim’s Trading Post & Pawn team member Rita Casillas. “There are always people who need cash and have nowhere else to go.”

Stepping into Tim’s reveals an arsenal of semi-automatics and revolvers, ...Read more

CHICAGO — Since moving to Bronzeville in 2007, Vanessa Harris has seen the many vacant lots in the South Side neighborhood get scooped up by developers and turned into $800,000 townhomes, some of them right outside her window.

A retired state employee, Harris, 66, bought her two-flat for $231,000 through the city’s New Homes for Chicago ...Read more

David Lockard is, perhaps, the only person in Philadelphia whose home is featured on a postage stamp. Unfortunately for him, it feels about the size of one, too.

Lockard lives in one of Chestnut Hill’s modernist marvels, the Vanna Venturi house, which the United States Postal Service honored in 2005 for its an iconic mid-century design.

The ...Read more