Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dino Rossi earned at least $380,000 last year, boosted by real-estate deals he made working at an Everett firm, according to his personal financial-disclosure report filed Friday.

His income included $16,000 in speaking fees for a series of real-estate 

seminars attacked by Democrats because they included advice on how to profit from buying foreclosed homes.

In all, Rossi owns property and other investments worth between $4,395,000 and $15 million, his filing said.

A former state senator from Sammamish, Rossi has a long background in commercial real estate, and he frequently talks about buying his first apartment building when he was 25.

In late 2008, after losing his second gubernatorial bid to Gov. Chris Gregoire, Rossi joined Coast Equity Partners as a principal in charge of property acquisitions and investor relations.

Rossi's exact finances are impossible to determine because the financial-disclosure forms that all candidates must file only require them to check boxes representing broad ranges of income. For example, Rossi's biggest slice of income from Coast Equity was listed at "between" $100,001 and $1 million.

Rossi previously was granted an extension from regular filing deadlines for the financial-disclosure forms after entering the campaign in late May.

He would not further clarify his finances, saying he'd complied with reporting requirements. He pledged to place most of his real-estate investments in a blind trust if elected, to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest.

His total income last year was listed as between $380,000 and $1.5 million, according to the filing with the Secretary of the Senate. In 2008, when he last ran for governor, he reported income of at least $255,000.

Rossi made the bulk of his money from rent on several apartment and medical office buildings. Some buildings he has owned for years, while he received ownership interest in others through his work for Coast Equity.

His biggest asset was Hartford Court LLC, which owns apartments in Lake Stevens. It was valued at between $1 million and $5 million.

Incumbent Democratic Sen. Patty Murray's finances are comparatively simple, according to her latest filing in May. Read more of   click here.

By Jim Brunner

Seattle Times political reporter

Information from The Associated Press was included in this report.

Rich Are Defaulting On Mortgages Too

By Judy Martel · Bankrate.com

If only jazz-age author F. Scott Fitzgerald could have foreseen the long and varied life of his now-famous observation, "the rich are different." Here's another, less favorable, differentiator of the wealthy: They're defaulting on their mortgages in greater numbers than the rest of the underwater-mortgage population.

Mortgages on mansions like this one are going into default at alarming rates.

A study for The New York Times by CoreLogic reports that more than one in seven homeowners with mortgages higher than $1 million are delinquent, versus one in 12 borrowers of less than $1 million. The delinquency rate on homes with mortgages of more than $1 million is 23 percent, versus 10 percent for cheaper loans.

Do these data suggest, as The New York Times alleges, that the wealthy are treating their homes like investments by "ruthlessly" walking away as if they were worthless stocks? Or is this an example of an "aspirational" wealthy population, who bought mansions above their financial means and couldn't afford a stratospheric mortgage in the first place? We can only speculate.

On the flip side, read Bankrate's own poll, which reveals that homebuyers in general have few regrets about the purchase of their home despite falling real-estate values. Perhaps it can be explained as the difference between buying a home as an investment versus as a place to live.

How Low Can They Go? Lower Mortgage Rates Not Boosting Housing Activity

By J.W. ELPHINSTONE, AP Real Estate – NEW YORK –

Mortgage rates fell for the second straight week to the lowest point in five decades. But many people either don't qualify for new mortgages or have already taken advantage of the low rates this year.

As a result, the housing market and the broader economy may not benefit much from the lower rates.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage dropped to 4.57 percent this week, mortgage company

Freddie Mac reported Thursday. That's down from the previous record low of 4.58 percent set last week.

It's the lowest since Freddie Mac began tracking rates in 1971. The last time rates were lower was in the 1950s, when most long-term home loans lasted just 20 or 25 years.

Rates have fallen over the past two months. Investors, concerned with the European debt crisis, have poured money into the safety of

Treasury bonds. Treasury yields have fallen and so have mortgage rates, which tend to track yields on long-term Treasurys.

However, low rates have yet to fuel home sales. The housing market has slowed since federal tax credits for homebuyers expired at the end of April. And the latest decline in mortgage rates is unlikely to boost the market.

Mortgage rates have hovered near record lows for some time, so most people who can afford to buy homes or qualify to refinance their loans have already done so in the past 18 months. Doing so again wouldn't be worth the cost for most.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans are unable to take advantage of the low rates. Many have seen the value of their homes plummet and have little or no equity. Or they lack good credit or steady income to get or refinance a mortgage.

Overall mortgage applications increased last week from a week earlier, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. But they still remain 35 percent below last year's levels.

Rates could go to zero and still not budge the housing market. That's because a person without a job can't afford a home and a person worried about losing their job is unlikely to purchase, too, said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst with Bankrate.com.

"And if an $8,000 tax credit didn't get buyers to take the plunge, saving $50 a month on a mortgage payment probably won't either," he said.

To calculate the national average, Freddie Mac collects mortgage rates on Monday through Wednesday of each week from lenders around the country. Rates often fluctuate significantly, even within a given day.

Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to an average of 4.07 percent, up from 4.04 percent last week. That was the lowest on records dating to September 1991.

Rates on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 3.75 percent, down from 3.79 percent a week earlier. That was also the lowest on Freddie Mac's records, which date back only to January 2005.

Average rates on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 3.75 percent from 3.80 percent.

The rates do not include add-on fees known as points. One point is equal to 1 percent of the total loan amount. The nationwide fee for all types of loans in Freddie Mac's survey averaged 0.7 a point.