Written by Ed Condran Conventional wisdom says renovating your kitchen always improves your home’s value, but what if your budget is more like $1,000 rather than $27,000, which is the national average kitchen renovation cost. Don’t despair! These modestly-priced changes can transform your house from out-of-date to fresh-faced. Click to read the rest of the

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have relaxed rules that would have kept banks from approving mortgages during the government shutdown. Typically, Fannie and Freddie require lenders to verify a borrower’s income with the Internal Revenue Service before closing on a mortgage. But last week, some lenders reported that they could not approve the mortgages because