Month: February 2025

There’s good news for potential homebuyers: mortgage rates continued to trend down this week. In January, rates hit 7.04%, the highest level since last May. This week, however, 30-year rates dropped to 6.76% for fixed-rate mortgages, according to Freddie Mac. “This week, mortgage rates decreased to their lowest level in over two months,” Freddie Mac […]

Balances for 401(k) retirement accounts hit the “second-highest average on record” in the final quarter of 2024, according to new data from Fidelity Investments.  The financial services company found in its newly-released fourth-quarter retirement analysis that balances for that type of retirement plan averaged $131,700.  That figure marked a jump of 11% year-over-year, according to […]

The Internal Revenue Service has doled out millions of tax refunds amid the ongoing 2025 tax filing season.  More than 8 million tax refunds have gone out during the 2025 season as of Feb. 7 and, according to the IRS, those refunds have averaged $2,065 each.  When taxpayers receive their refunds, addressing debt, socking away […]

Annual inflation increased to 3% in January, rising above expectations and giving the Federal Reserve further reason to slow down interest rate cuts. Inflation increased 0.5% monthly, slightly exceeding expectations and above the previous month’s increase of 0.4%, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Core CPI, which […]

Verizon is teaming up with ForgiveCo to clear $10 million in consumer debt for more than 6,500 North Carolinians impacted by Hurricane Helene. The communications company said the debt relief campaign is aimed at assisting with the ongoing recovery following the September 2024 storm. ForgiveCo’s “random acts of kindness” purchased the debts in the form […]