Fords start $10M campaign to support Detroit youth
The Michigan Central Station Children’s Endowment Campaign aims to raise at least $10 million by June, when Ford Motor Co. is reopening the depot as the heart of a new mobility campus.
What the big realtors settlement means for home buyers and sellers
By Holden Lewis | NerdWallet
A landmark legal settlement between home sellers and the real estate industry could cause a shakeup in the way homes are bought and sold, beginning this summer.
The National Association of Realtors announced Friday that it had agreed to pay $418 million to settle more than a dozen antitrust lawsuits that accused NAR of imposing rules that inflated real estate commissions. NAR admitted to no wrongdoing, according to the news release.
Under the settlement’s terms, negotiations between buyers and sellers might become gnarlier. Home sellers would pay smaller commissions, allowing them to keep more of the proceeds from sales. And buyers, not sellers, would decide how much buyer’s agents are paid.
The settlement would mark a significant change for buyers, sellers and real estate agents. It’s uncertain how real estate markets will make the transition between now and mid-July, when the settlement is due to go into effect.
What the lawsuits are about
The settlement stems from a federal class-action antitrust lawsuit, Burnett v. National Association of Realtors et al., filed in Kansas City, Missouri. Last October, a jury sided with the plaintiffs, agreeing that NAR and large brokerages conspired to inflate commissions paid by sellers.
American debt stings like never before in new era for households
After years of managing household budgets through the stress of the worst inflation in a generation, U.S. families are increasingly pressured by a different kind of financial squeeze: The cost of carrying debt.
Two years after the Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates to tame prices, delinquency rates on credit cards and auto loans are the highest in more than a decade. For the first time on record, interest payments on those and other non-mortgage debts are as big a financial burden for U.S. households as mortgage interest payments.
The figures suggest a difficult reality for the millions of consumers who are the engine of the U.S. economy: The era of high borrowing costs — however necessary to slow price increases — has a sting of its own that many families may feel for years to come, especially the ones that haven’t locked in cheap home loans. And the Fed, which meets next week for a policy decision, doesn’t appear poised to cut rates until later in 2024.
Ford delays 3-row EVs as focus shifts to smaller, affordable products, sources say
The automaker is expected to launch a small EV crossover by late 2026, according to a person with knowledge of the automaker’s plans. Bloomberg reported it would start at around $25,000 and be the first of three affordable EVs.
Holman nearly doubles auto retail business with Leith Automotive megadeal
The transaction closed this week and nearly doubles Holman’s auto retail business. It’s the latest in a slew of large dealership group acquisitions.