The owners told the Journal their kids are grown and so they’re putting the homestead up for sale. You should know, Greenwichers, the Journal was told there’s a possibility of subdividing the property.

This isn’t the most expensive property for sale in US history, just the highest price listed this year. According to Forbes, there are plenty of homes that cost more around the world and in the U.S. Lat year, One Hyde Park, London sold for $221 million and that’s just an apartment.

Is there a correlation between the rise in rates and the drop in applications? We’re not sure. Sort of a chicken and egg, thing.

But we did check to see how much the rise in rates could have cost some home buyers and there are implications for further increases.

If a person buying a home a $300,000 home in Danbury put down 20 percent and financed at the 3.59 percent rate of two weeks ago, they’d have a monthly payment of about $1,089.80. That doesn’t include taxes, insurance, etc.

Buying that same house a week later at the 3.67 percent rate would increase the monthly payment $11 to $1,100 per month, according to Bankrate.com’s mortgage calculator.

Not a tremendous burden, really, it’s three or four cups of coffee at Starbucks a month.

If the rate, however, were to go up a full percent, to 4.59 percent, a person buying our Danbury home would have to pay $1,228.91, a month.

Here in the Mighty Financial Mines, as one reader recently dubbed us, we wondered what would happen to the market if interest rates went up.

Those eggs are cooked

There are several scenarios, of course. Probably the best has the Fed raising rates when the economy starts growing at a stronger pace, thawing out the great wage ice age. In that case, people could probably afford to pay more as hiring increases and employers provide raises and the real estate market could continue to improve.

But, if rates go up in a weaker economy, there is a chance the market could slow down with some people get priced out of it. And in a worse case scenario, prices could actually fall, as sellers have to cave to the reality of what buyers can actually finance.

Unless, of course, the bankers do something like, loosen up their underwriting standards…

But for now, a jump in rates doesn’t look likely, though it is, as Ed Deak, the don of Connecticut Econ, posited in our future.

“They can’t stay at zero forever,” he said in a recent interview.

Jumbo loans also went up according to the MBA, rising to 3.87 percent. Refinance activity was down 8 percent and purchases were off 4 percent.

Check out the MBA for more info.

Ranbaxy agreed to settle the charges after a whistleblower made allegations about its drugs in court. The feds and states got involved because, ultimately because Medicaid, like private insurance policies, pushes patients to use cheaper generics when available. In all, the Indian pharmaceutical made 26 generic type of drugs between 2003 and 2010.

Ranbaxy agreed to pay fines and restitution to Medicaid programs, while not admitting it did anything wrong.

Getting on the bus

After the last student gets off the bus to go home in June in Trumbull and Shelton the kids will shout and run, feeling the joy of being set free for the summer. For the 174 bus drivers and other employees working for First Student, they’re facing the prospects of not having jobs.

First Student lost the contract for the schools in Trumbull and Shelton and as a result filed a mass layoff notice with the state last week. It doesn’t mean the people will definitely not have jobs come the next school year, changes in bus contracts occur fairly regularly here in Connecticut and the incoming companies often hire the drivers who know the routes and the towns.

Still, in this economy, it’s not the most pleasant way to head into the summer, especially withe every company looking to find a way to shed costs.

While plenty of people are down on Connecticut, it ranked for the sixth worst place to do business according to a recent survey of CEOs, Malloy has been willing to put the state’s money where his mouth is and give it to companies to stay and expand here.

(Malloy likes to say Connecticut is open for business.)

Cannondale, a division of Montreal-based Dorel, plans on using the money to purchase office equipment and IT systems when it moves 145 employees to the new office in Wilton.

The bond commission will have to approve the deal, which provides the loan over 10 years at 2 percent interest. But, if Cannondale creates 75 new jobs over the next four years, the state will forgive $2 million.

Dorel, Cannondale’s parent corporation, reported on Thursday net income of $22.3 million for the first quarter of this year. Bad weather hurt bicycle sales and cut into revenue the company reported. Besides Cannondale, Dorel owns several prominent bike brands, including Schwinn and Mongoose.

But Yale’s not the only school that’s struggling with debt. Statistics show that schools across the state, including nursing, community college and vocationals have people defaulting on debts.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, there were 2,717 Connecticut residents who defaulted on federal student loans in 2010, the most recently published statistics.

When you get down to the school level, what’s particularly alarming is the numbers of defaults appearing as early as 2009, the only statistics available for schools.

Bloomberg has a first-rate story on the student loan issue, but here in the Mines, we can’t help but be concerned about the bigger problem of debt in America and what direction it’s pushing the economy.

Later this month, the Fed Bank of New York releases its quarterly report on household debt and that should provide a better picture of how close we are to a “double-dip debt crisis.”

Regulators found that city officials failed to come clean about the dire debt trouble at its Resource Recovery Facility and its general financial health while issuing bonds. This all happened in 2009 and since then , Harrisburg has been placed in receivership. Yup, PA’s capital is in bankruptcy.

At any event, the SEC pointed out that the Mayor at the time of the problem failed to properly disclose the scope of the problem and in fact the city misled investors on several occasions. One of the major issues that haunted Harrisburg was having a debt level eight times expected revenue. In the end, the city missed about $13.9 million in bond payments.

The SEC also criticized the city on how it handled its budget, knowing the Authority running the Resource Recovery Facility was in trouble. Here’s an excerpt from the SEC’s findings:

On November 25, 2008, the Harrisburg administration submitted a proposed 2009
Budget to City Council, which was approved on December 22, 2008 (”2009 Budget”). The 2009
Budget included $63 million of general fund expenditures. At the time, Harrisburg’s 2009 Budget
and its accompanying transmittal letter were accessible on Harrisburg’s website. By the time the
2009 Budget was passed, Harrisburg was aware of the Authority’s projected budget deficits and
that Dauphin County was challenging the rate increase. As a result, the Authority was unlikely to
have sufficient revenues to pay its 2009 debt service obligations. Harrisburg’s 2009 Budget, as
adopted, did not include funds for debt guarantee payments for the RRF, raising questions as to
whether it would fulfill its obligations under those guarantees. Nevertheless, at the beginning of
the year, Harrisburg administration officials informally set aside $2.1 million of its surplus reserves
in anticipation of potentially having to make those guarantee payments.

The SEC issued guidelines to municipalities regarding their obligations under the Securities Act. It’ll be interesting to see how this case affects future disclosures among Connecticut and municipalities around the country. The Mines fully expects investors will be digging even deeper into muni financials after this.

As part of the 2012 deal, which Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen helped craft, the nation’s five largest banks agreed to provide mortgage relief to homeowners and abide by new servicing guidelines, which included timely response to modification requests and to keep track of paperwork.

Wells Fargo maintains it is compliance while Bank of America told the Washington Post it will work to correct any problems.

Schneiderman, in a press release, said his office has received a host of complaints from consumers and the professionals who are helping consumers navigate the mortgage modification process. New York is reporting there were 339 violations by Bank of America and Wells in the Empire State since October of last year.

“The five mortgage servicers that signed the National Mortgage Settlement are legally required to take specific, rigorous, and enforceable steps to protect homeowners,” Schneiderman said in a press release. “Wells Fargo and Bank of America have flagrantly violated those obligations, putting hundreds of homeowners across New York at greater risk of foreclosure. I intend to use every tool available to my office to hold these companies accountable under the terms of the National Mortgage Settlement.”

According to the independent monitor hired to make sure the banks comply, Connecticut was the only state where more professionals, like attorneys and housing counselors, complained about the banks’ process than New York. The monitor tracked complaints between April of 2012 and January of 2013.

However, in Connecticut, direct consumer complaints about the process were among the lowest.

Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen said he is reviewing New York’s complaint.

In an email sent via his spokeswoman, Jepsen said, “As a member of the Monitoring Committee of the National Mortgage Settlement (NMS), I take any alleged violation of the NMS very seriously.  The NMS provides the monitoring committee and each state with the ability to enforce provisions of the settlement, including filing suit, if necessary.  Today I received a copy of New York’s letter identifying potential problems with some banks compliance with the NMS.  I was aware of many of the issues raised by New York.  I am reviewing the information provided by New York’s and will work with the other members of the monitoring committee to ensure full compliance with the NMS.”

The AG’s office maintains that the reports it’s getting from mortgage pros and consumers are that the banks have been more responsive since the settlement, though staff are still hearing complaints about lost documents and a lack of timely communications.

Connecticut’s AG pledges to work with the banks to correct the issues.

Under the agreement, the monitoring committee has 21 days to review New York’s complaints at which time it might decide to move as a group to sue or do nothing and allow New York to go it alone.

An S-92 flies out of the factory in Stratford on its way to the Gulf for oil rig duty. Contributed photo.

Stratford-based Sikorsky Aircraft won FAA approval for Rig Approach, a new system the helicopter maker has developed with its customer PHI Inc. to help pilots land safely on deep-sea oil rigs.

It’s an automated system the two companies have been developing since 2007. It reduces the workload of a pilot during approach of an oil platform and is expected to be helpful during bad weather and improve overall safety. PHI, which flies a lot of Sikorsky helicopters, transports employees and supplies to oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, Sikorsky said a pilot with the company approached a Sikorsky pilot about developing the system and the two companies teamed up on something that’s brand new to the industry.

“Automated rig approach had never been done before so the FAA had no basis on which to compare it, said Ron Doeppener, Sikorsky’s project pilot, in a release. “We couldn’t go to the FAA regulators and say we’re certifying this according to existing data. We’re writing the book on it, working with the operator and the FAA.”

The new system was tested by the FAA in February and Sikorsky will now be able to provide it as an option on its S-92 aircraft. It can also be retrofitted onto older S-92s.

“The… system is one of the most intuitive and innovative systems I have ever flown,” said Paul Perkins, chief pilot for PHI, who said it in a press release, will aid in difficult approaches taking some of the burden off of pilots.

The system is also expected to be available for the new S-76D now in development. Both the 92 and 76 are popular for use in the oil production business and the company is not sure what pricing point it will set for the system.

“We are still establishing market brand pricing for new and existing customers. It is too early to estimate how many customers will buy it, but we believe it will be a very desirable capability,” said Marianne Heffernan, a Sikorsky sp0keswoman.

The added feature will presumably be available on the S-92 variant Sikorsky and Lockheed are entering in the contest for the next presidential helicopter.

Sikorsky is a unit of Hartford-based UTC.

Some might call it luck, but Gov. Malloy’s UBS deal looks divine.

Hey, things broke right for the Guv this time as Bloomberg reported this weekend, that UBS is going to move jobs out of New York City and into Stamford. Maybe.

We checked with UBS and the company seemed perplexed that Stamford was mentioned as a destination for employment growth. Bloomberg also cites a real estate pro who says UBS will move some work to the Avenue of the Americas.

Later, UBS said  it will honor its agreement with the state but would not comment on any movement of employees. Here’s what we found out officially. Mining some of our sources around town, it sounds like some jobs are coming back to Stamford, but not a flood of them.

Still if the initial report is right, things look good for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

Remember Gov. Malloy, fresh off his win in the election, confronted some bad news in his first year in office when UBS was allegedly going to move out of Stamford. He slipped the Swiss banking giant a sweet $20 million loan to keep about 2,000 employees in the City that Works through 2017.

Word was that some execs’  spouses didn’t like their significant others telling people they didn’t work in NYC. But Bloomberg is saying that the bank wants to trim some real estate costs.

Anyway, stay tuned for more.

And yes, for those devout Miniacs, we are back this week after a break. Sorry for the interruption of your news.