What’s happening? Last week, we found the hottest neighborhoods in the U.S. This week: Iowa (where mortgage fraud is no big thang), The Game, and news on job creation. Finally: What’s worth more, Apple (the company) or Seattle (the city)?
Can’t get a mortgage? Tight credit prevented some 5.2 million households from getting a home loan between 2009 and 2014. The Urban Institute says credit is harder to get now than it was in 2001, before things got frothy, thanks in part to regulation and plain-old fear.
Can’t get a credit card? Same thing. Researchers at the American Action Forum blame bank regulation in particular.
Gaah! Bedbugs! They haven’t gone away. Detroit and Philadelphia top the list of worst cities.
Quick, what’s compounding? How about amortization? If you don’t know, it might be because no one taught you. The Council for Economic Education has details in its latest report.
NYC goes green. Under a new law, builders will have to tap into geothermal.
Bad-guy roundup, yee-hah! Rental scammers nabbed in Florida.  
Want to be mortgage-free? Move to Cleveland.
What are they griping about now? Credit reports, debt collectors and mortgages, which accounted for 68 percent of complaints submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in December.
Home values. A lot of people track home values (S&P Case-Shiller, the Federal Housing Finance Administration, Redfin). So far, prices haven’t returned to their peak, but we’re inching closer. The latest estimate from Black Knight Financial Services says we’re about 5 percent off.
Sell the house, buy Disney. If you sold all the housing in Seattle, you could buy Apple (the whole company). Sell the homes in Indianapolis and you could pick up IBM. And if you sold all of Orlando’s houses, you could go to Disney World forever. Joe Cortright puts the cost of housing in perspective.