As Americans accumulate more debt, fewer building nest egg - 2004-03-07
The national economy's recovering, the bulls are running again on Wall Street and higher housing prices in Redding — up 18.56 percent last year alone — and elsewhere have many homeowners feeling flush.

In the past decade, consumer debt has more than doubled, to $1.98 trillion. That debt — which includes credit cards and car loans but not mortgages — translates into some $18,700 per U.S. household.
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Mortgage refinancing rebounds - 2004-03-07
Dean Cinkala is a serial refinancer. He's refinanced the mortgage on his house in suburban Potomac, Md., so many times over the past few years that he's lost count.

``It's the fourth or fifth time,'' Cinkala said. ``I can't even remember. I'm just continually trying to drop my interest rate.'' Cinkala just locked in a rate of 4.88 percent on a 15-year mortgage, edging his interest rate down from 5.13 percent.
Read the full story at Akron Beacon Journal