BANKING

Getting Creative: Lenders target segments of mortgage market
By Susan Morse
Published:  June 2006

Rising interest rates have local lenders creating incentives targeting specific segments of the mort-gage market. Northeast Credit Union is offering mortgages to lower-income buyers that are initially a percent lower than the national average. Provident Bank is giving the construction market what is essentially a fixed, 31-year mortgage.

Slow start to housing market, but optimism for spring building season
By Dan Tuohy
Published:  April 2006

A hot housing market, long the linchpin to the region's economy, has had a frosty reception so far this year. Building permits for single-family homes in New Hampshire were down 20 percent in January from a year ago. And existing home sales in the Northeast dropped 10 percent a month into 2006, the U.S. Census reported.