key measurement of home prices went up by more than 1 percent between march and april, the first increase all year. but the experts say this is really good news for the housing market recovery. when demand if homes go up, prices go up, and this same report shows that the cost of a home increased in 19 of 20 big cities monitored. the news gave the small boost to your 401(k) today with the dow surged in the last hour or hour and a half, and gerri willis is with us, now. what else is moving the matters? our parent company is in very much positive territory. gerri: they are. they will split in two. we have not been covering the details of that necessarily but it is a very big story and it will affect a lot of 401(k) s, a widely held stock. shepard: what is moving the markets today? gerri: consumer confidence is down. and the market is up. it started down seeing the consumer confidence numbers and a surprise, really, because you
it may be the most critical supreme court case since the justices ruled on the 2000 presidential election, but out in obama administration s health care reform law is under close scrutiny. in a dramatic hearing today the court appeared deeply split. conservative justices are showing deep skepticism about the individual mandate which would require people to buy health insurance. cnn s congressional correspondent kate bolduan and jeffrey toobin were both inside the court today for the hearing. kate, let s start with you. is the health care law in serious jeopardy right now? reporter: i ll tell you, wolf, you never know how much the oral arguments in the courtroom will in the end reflect the final opinion of the court, but straight out of the gate today the lawyer for the obama administration was the one on the defensive and while the justices can and do surprise us, quite frankly, from being in the courtroom today, it does appear that the key provision of the health care law,
pac supporting them make it a deluge. that s a met for, really, since almost half of floridans are under water on their home loans, that is. mark preston, john avalon i want to start first with this field. mitt romney, you say he defined himself, mark, in florida at the cnn debate. and he s turned the page. i want to listen real quickly to what he said that you think is a turning point. is he still the most ant anti-immigrant candidate? i think of the four of us, yes. go ahead, governor. that s simply inexcusable. senator mark arubio came to my defense and said that ad was inexcusable and inappropriate. mr. speaker, i m not anti-immigrant. my father was born in mexico. my wife s father was born in whales. the idea that i m anti-immigrant was repulsive. was that the moment for him to take the upper hand again? the republican candidates have been distracted by issues such as immigration, legal immigration and mitt romney had taken heat from that. newt gingrich seeme
homeowners to refinance high-interest mortgages at these rock-bottom interest rates. who qualifies? homeowners who have mortgages backed by fannie mae and freddie mac. you must be current on your payments. and you ll now be able to refinance no matter how much you are under water on that home. this lifts a previous limit of 125% loan-to-home value ratio. the program also aims to streamline the refinancing process, please, and reduce and eliminate fees. i m joined now by lynnette cox, bob molten and rick newman is the chief business correspondent for u.s. news & world report. the white house says this could mean cheaper mortgage payments. some say as much as 1.7 million. it probably in practical terms will help a fraction of that. maybe 20%, 30% or so. if you look at the previous efforts, that s sort of the range, you know. we have high hopes and we want it to be able to help more, but frankly, even if it does help 1 million, we ve got more than 5 million people who are ou
communicate with each other and to gather in one place, he said he may give the police authority to shut down those methods of communication for anybody who is believed to be n. inciting violence, shep. shepard: that would be quite a move. it would be. shepard: jonathan, thanks so much. right now the banks are losing and borrowers are winning for those who can afford to buy a home in this tough economic climate. mortgage rates have hit record and near record lows this week. the average rate for a 30 year fixed mortgage fell to 4.32%. foreclosure rates also down with 7% fewer filings reported in the month of july than in june. according to realtytrac, that decrease is due to paperwork delays, really. not any housing market recovery. though it does appear one area is immune to the real estate crisis. claudia cowan in san francisco apparently the recent search in tech companies going private is driving up demands for mansions. that s right, shepard. even at several million dollars