BRIEFCASE FEWER CAN AFFORD THE MEDIAN HOME.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

A median-price Los Angeles home has become less affordable, with the number of households able to qualify for a mortgage dropping 6 percentage points in a year, a trade group said Thursday.

In November 2001, 36 percent of Los Angeles households could afford the median-price home compared with 30 percent a year later, the California Association of Realtors reported.

In Ventura County 32 percent of households could afford the median price home versus 35 percent a year ago.

The situation is worse in Orange County, where the number of households able to afford a median-price home dropped 8 points, to 25 percent, between November 2001 and November 2002, the CAR reported.

Statewide, affordability dropped 5 percentage points to 30 percent fewer households that could afford a median-price home in 2002 than in 2001.

30-year mortgage at 5.95 percent

WASHINGTON - Rates on 30-year mortgages edged up this week after dropping to a new low last week. But rates are still sufficiently low to be attractive to house hunters thinking about buying a home and people mulling refinancing the home they now own, economists said.

The average interest rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rose to 5.95 percent for the week ending Jan. 10, up from 5.85 percent the week before, Freddie Mac reported Thursday in its weekly nationwide survey of rates.

Last week's rate was the lowest since the mortgage giant began tracking 30-year mortgage rates in 1971. Records that reach back earlier than Freddie Mac's put last week's 30-year mortgage rate at the lowest level since the early 1960s.

Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, a popular option or refinancing, also went up this week to 5.33 percent, compared with 5.24 percent in the prior week.

However, for one-year adjustable rate mortgages, rates dipped to 4.03 percent, down from 4.06 percent the previous week.

MRV announces stronger quarter

CHATSWORTH - MRV Communications, provider of optical components, announced stronger-than-expected preliminary results Thursday.

Revenues are expected to exceed $59 million in the quarter, compared with revenue of $51 million in the same period a year ago.

The Chatsworth-based company is also expecting to post a loss in the range of 21 cents to 23 cents a share. The company reported a loss of $1.71 a share in the third quarter a year ago.

Intel chip will give laptops longer life

LAS VEGAS - In a break with its tradition of making ever-faster computer processors, Intel Corp.'s newest chip, dubbed Centrino, will be slower than current processors, while giving future laptops longer battery life and built-in wireless networking capabilities.

Speaking at the International Consumer Electronics Show, Intel chief executive Craig Barrett said the Centrino microprocessor, chip set and networking technology would be released in the first half of the year.

Barrett said Intel will announce by March which laptop makers will build the Centrino technology into their machines. Intel developed the technology under the code name Banias.

Intel said the Centrino components are based on a new microprocessor architecture aimed at mobile computing, designed to enable computer makers to build thinner, lighter machines that use less power and thus don't require frequent battery charges.