Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 7, 1994 TAG: 9401070240
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WASHINGTON - The average interest rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages rose to 7.23 percent this week, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. said Thursday.
This was up from 7.13 percent the previous week, but still below 7.31 percent at the end of November. The average hit a 25-year low of 6.74 percent in October but has been above 7 percent for the last 10 weeks.
On one-year adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders were asking an average initial rate of 4.23 percent, up from 4.2 percent.
Fifteen-year mortgages averaged 6.74 percent, up from 6.63 percent a week earlier.
- Associated Press
Lender forecloses on Colonnade
Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. on Thursday foreclosed on Phase 1 of the Colonnade Corporate Center, a Roanoke County office building. The company bid in the 7.46-acre property itself for $4,261,000.
The property had been owned by The Hobart Companies Ltd., of which Bruce Hobart of Richmond is principal owner.
William Lafferty, spokesman for Metropolitan in Atlanta, said he did not know if the company plans to resell the property.
Metropolitan had the original mortgage on the first phase of the center on Electric Road for $5.35 million. It did not finance the second phase of the office park. - Staff report
Chinese textiles face import ban
WASHINGTON - The United States will block imports of $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion a year of textiles and clothing made in China to punish that government for evading import quotas limiting those shipments.
U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor said Thursday that China was illegally transshipping more than $2 billion a year in textiles and apparel through third countries and falsely labeling the products that are then exported to the United States.
The penalties will not take effect until Jan. 17, when a legal notice appears in the Federal Register, and not affect China trade until later in the year.
- Journal of Commerce
Bankruptcy cases decline nationally
WASHINGTON - The number of U.S. bankruptcy cases declined 8.2 percent in the year ended Sept. 30, the first drop in nearly a decade, as the economy emerged from the recession, the government said Thursday.
The Administrative Office of the United States Courts reported bankruptcy filings in fiscal 1993 totaled 897,231, down from 977,478 a year earlier.
It was the first decrease since filings fell in 1984 to 346,617 from 362,059 the previous fiscal year.
The decline resulted in part from a low level of filings - just 215,498 bankruptcy applications - in the final three months of the fiscal year, the lowest quarterly count since 210,043 in the July-September period of 1990.
But, the administrative office added, bankruptcy filings in each of the four quarters of fiscal 1993 were lower than the same periods a year earlier. - Associated Press
2,400 to retire at computer maker
DAYTON, Ohio - About 2,400 NCR employees opted to take an early retirement offer made by the Dayton-based computer maker to about 5,500 of its U.S. employees.
Of those taking early out, about 400 are from Dayton, where NCR, the computer arm of AT&T, has its world headquarters.
A NCR spokeswoman said the final numbers, which are still being compiled, could reduce the number to about 2,200. The last date for employees to change their decision was Dec. 31.
The response slightly exceeded NCR's expectations. - Cox News Service
by CNB