April 2014

In recent years, drivers across the country were introduced to the idea of ‘pay as you drive’ car insurance rates.  The system is borrowed from a similar program in Europe, and attempts to provide drivers with fair rates from their insurers based on their own individual driving habits.

An Anoka County man has been accused earlier this month with seven counts of felony of financial transaction card fraud.               

Shane Clinton Rundle, a 53-year-old St. Louis Park resident, is accused of breaking into several vehicles in Anoka County and stealing credit and debit cards from purses in order to make purchases in Andover, Blaine, Coon Rapids and Ham Lake.

Sinkholes are a common thorn in the side for homeowners and their insurance policies, many of which exclude or restrict coverage for sinkhole damages.  Florida is one of the most common locations for sinkholes in the US, which unexpectedly open up in rural or urban residential neighborhoods.

A sinkhole recently opened in a retirement community in the Villages, a retirement community northwest of Orlando.  The sinkhole was approximately 50 feet in diameter, and stretched between two houses in the neighborhood.

Markets across the country continue to recover from the housing crash that began in 2008.  But the recovery is progressing very slowly in New Jersey, home to the highest percentage of mortgaged homes in foreclosure across the entire US.

According to CoreLogic, a leading real estate analytical firm, the national rate of foreclosures jumped in January before coming back down again in February.  But the rate never came down in New Jersey, and instead continued rising into March to approximately 6.2 percent of all mortgaged homes in the Garden State.