Renters get foreclosure relief

It's every renter's worst nightmare: To move into a home or condominium with affordable rent only to find out that the owner has lost the property in foreclosure. The rent money and security deposit are gone, and chances are good that the bank that now owns the property will evict the tenant even if the rent has been paid.

High-yield checking: A good bet

When the economy is in a downward spiral and the federal funds rate is stuck between zero percent and 0.25 percent for the foreseeable future, you could reasonably assume that you're stuck with low-yielding deposit accounts if you want an FDIC guarantee.

Mortgage rates slide to near-record lows

The benchmark 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage declined 8 basis points, to 5.29 percent, according to our national survey of large lenders. A basis point is one-hundredth of 1 percentage point. The mortgages in this week's survey had an average total of 0.33 discount and origination points. One year ago, the mortgage index was 5.98 percent; four weeks ago, it was 5.41 percent.