best buying advice

The takeover by banking regulators this month of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank has conjured up the ghost of the Great Recession.Of the 523 bank failures since 2008, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. figures show, only one was larger than either Silicon Valley Bank or Signature Bank. That would be Washington Mutual Bank, which had $307 billion in assets, while Silicon Valley Bank had $209 billion and...

  Buyers got on a roller coaster in January 2022 and stayed strapped in for the real estate market loops throughout the year. Mortgage rates were low, then soared to a 20-year high of 7.08% before dipping again. Median national list prices rose to a historic $450,000, and then they, too, began to fall. Homes in July were snatched up in 34 days—and come November, they lingered on the market for 56...