Home loan applications rise as rates fall
WASHINGTON (AP) — Applications for home loans continue to rise as consumers race to refinance at the lowest rates in decades.
The Mortgage Bankers Associations reported last week that overall applications increased nearly 7 percent from a week earlier. While they have been rising in recent weeks, they remain below early 2009 levels.
Applications to refinance home loans were up 9 percent to the highest level since May 2009. But new mortgages taken out to purchase homes fell 2 percent.
Those applications have fallen in eight out of the last nine weeks, after government tax credits that spurred home sales ended. Applications were 35 percent below last year’s levels.
The average rate for a 30-year fixed loan recently dropped to 4.58 percent, according to Freddie Mac. That was the lowest since the mortgage company began keeping records in 1971.
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Detroit-Windsor Tunnel offers quicker way to pay
DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit-Windsor Tunnel is offering a speedier way to pay tolls to use the international border crossing.
Officials with the tunnel connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, under the Detroit River recently announced that toll lanes on the U.S. side have been equipped with readers that recognize NEXPRESS cards.
Instructions for getting a card are on the tunnel’s website.
Tolls may be prepaid online and officials say it will be less expensive than using cash, credit cards or tokens to pay tolls at the border.
Readers that recognize NEXPRESS cards are expected to be in place on the Canadian side of the border by year’s end.
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Ex-owner of Michigan cemetery sentenced
GRAND RAPIDS (AP) — An ex-owner of cemeteries in four states has been sentenced to up to 10 years iin prison for embezzling $4.2 million from a Grand Rapids cemetery.
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said Robert Nelms received the sentence recently from Kent County Circuit Judge George Buth.
The 41-year-old repaid the money he stole from Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens, which his Indianapolis-based company operated. He pleaded guilty in September.
Nelms also has owned cemeteries in Indiana, Iowa and Ohio. He agreed to sell 11 cemeteries to replenish prepaid funeral and burial funds.
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Six convicted in first motorcycle club trial
DETROIT (AP) — Six members of the Highwaymen motorcycle club have been convicted of a racketeering conspiracy after a two-month trial.
A jury in federal court in Detroit returned the verdict recently after about 25 hours of deliberations.
Prosecutors portrayed the Highwaymen as a violent gang involved in drugs, armed robbery and other crimes.
More than 80 members of the club or their associates have been charged. In the first trial, the jury convicted Leonard Moore, Joseph “Little Joe” Whiting, Anthony Clark, Michael “Cocoa” Cicchetti, Aref Nagi and Gary Ball Jr.
Prosecutors had help from former Highwaymen.
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