Mortgage Rates Climb Applications Fall

If you were thinking about refinancing your mortgage and been dragging your feet (or maybe your bank has been), refinancing may be less attractive than it was a week or two ago. The 30 year fixed rate was about 4.81% last week. This week it has jumped right around 9% up to 5.25%. Granted this is still at a historically low level, but if you were meaning to lock in a low refi rate, you may want move quickly. There are still some banks out there with low rates, just make sure you crunch the numbers and take into account the closing costs and/or points the lender may be charging. As usual, Bankrate is a good place to start your search for the lowest national and local rates.

Amazon Selling Flip Camcorder for $50!

If you have a gadget-loving father, new grad or someone else in your family Amazon has a really good deal right now on the Flip Camcorder. For those of you not familiar with the Flip series of gadgets they are stripped down, but very functional camcorders that take digital video and in some cases HD video. The engineering on them is actually really good and best of all they are CHEAP.

Now don't expect a lot of bells and whistles, you will be dissapointed. But the little things do get the job done. Amazon is selling the Flip camcorder that takes 30 mins worth of video for $50. I think that's a steal as far as tech goes - especially considering how fast the stuff becomes outdated. They also have some more pricey models that give you image stabilization, HD video and some other features if those are important to you.