i asked cnn business correspondent alison kosik if this is a sign that the bottom of the market is now holding. >> victor, it's funny, you're asking that $64,000 question and it's what many buyers and sellers are wondering at this point. the good news is that more and more analysts are coming out and saying the bottom has actually passed and as this point we're actually on the way up and numbers came out this week that support that. home prices across 20 major u.s. cities rose 1.6% in july and then a separate report from the commerce department and what it showed was that the median price of a newly constructed home is at $257,000. that's a jump up 11% from july to august. now, a few reasons for these higher prices. less of a supply of homes on the market and that means more people are going after fewer properties. plus, mortgage rates are at record lows. that's a real good incentive to get people out there to buy. also, an increasing number of buyers. they just haven't been able to find previously owned homes that they like, they are opting to go brand-new and those are traditionally

there are other places to stash your tirement alison kosik has me from the help desk. >> hi there. here on the help desk we're talking about saving for your rerement and with me this hour e liziller and greg mde. liz, this is the question for you. >> other than a 401(k), how else can i save for rerement? >>t just seems luke a good fallback, doesn't it, the 401(k) and most people only invest in 401(, don't they? >> they do. but ifomeone is in a position thateyan put more in their 401(k) lows, t there are options. if a couple makes a bis an $175,000,youcan additionally put money into a roth i.r.a. th will grow tax deferred and be tax free at retirement. and you can always put about $5,000 right now after tax into just a traditional i.r.a., even when you already have a 401(k). >> okay. anything beyond those that she just mentioned? >> i love the i.r.a. and too mapeople think it is aneither/or proposition. you can do the 401(k) and the i.r.a. and evenor h backdoway to get money into that roth i.r.a. soou could have that tax pool of money when yretire. >> great advice. thanks. if you ha

alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. alison, a lot of banks involved there. how did this happen? >> well, first of all, i want to point out no customer information was hacked into. there was no money taken. what instead happened here was more of these denial of service attacks. what these essentially do, they make it really difficult to get on to these banks' websites. there is no actual hacking going on. so no data was stolen and the banks' actual transaction networks were not affected. but these attacks can be annoying if you want to get on your bank's website and check your balance or pay your bills. it slows them down and many customers couldn't access them at all. >> do we know who is behind these attacks? >> we don't. and investigators are trying to track down who is responsible. one islamist group claimed responsibility but too soon to say whether they really did this. these attacks suggest there is a lot of preplanning involved, months in fact, which is very different from what we have seen in the past. bank of america, jpmorgan chase, wells fargo, u.

. >> alison kosik reporting live from the new york stock exchange. programming note, the first presidential debate starts wednesday night. watch it live 7 p.m. eastern on cnn. >>> karm get on the sequel, a major freeway stretch in los angeles closing again this weekend. the big question, will drivers stay home like last year or flood the highways? we'll be back. [ male announcer ] if you stash tissues like a squirrel stashes nuts, you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® liquid gels. nothing starts working faster than zyrtec® at relieving your allergy symptoms for 24 hours. zyrtec®. love the air. it's got that sweet honey taste. but no way it's 80 calories, right? no way, right? lady, i just drive the truck. right, there's no way right, right? have a nice day. [ male announcer ] 80 delicious calories. fiber one. ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you engineer a true automotive breakthrough? ♪ you give it bold new styling, unsurpassed luxury and nearly 1,000 improvements. introducing the redesigned 2013 glk. see your authorized mercedes-benz

kosik in new york. -----end-----cnn.sccipt----- downtown...is thh happening sppt for more america. ameriians.thh city seeing the most peoppe... make ttat big move. bth - the birds & the bees you want to pressrre your 3 &pchild'ssinnocence for as long as possible.no violent video games. or adult-themed tv shows. or movies. ou monitor &pthe internet. and ssrutiniie the children's section t your public library.your child checks out couppe of books includingg"my mom's having a bbby!" and it shocks youuits correct body parts.and it describes ii great detaill exactly whht daddy did to make mommy pregnant.really? is this the best we canndo? with &pthousandd of ccildren's booos why does a libraay find it necessary to make this book available for young children? without warning parents?you mighttexxect this ii san francisco, nee york, l.a. or chicago.but according to online catalogs, this book is in the children's section of libraries across america including albany; aaheviile; &paustin; baltimooee cedar rapids;

here's alison kosik. hi, alison. >> hi there. today we're hemg you prepare for retirement and with me this hour, liz miller and greg mcbride. greg, this question is for you. >> i'm five to ten years from retirement. i have maybe 10% to 20% of my net worth slabl in cash. i'd like to invest and put it to better use but given the political and economic uncertainties, what would you suggest i do with the cash resources? >> and this is actually one of the questions this most of us ask but this gentleman is five to ten years from retirement. what to do? >> the money withdrawing from retirement, it's cash invest ms or high quality bonds. yes, the returns are low but doesn't have the ability to take a whole lot of risk because he needs the money so soon. money this he's going to earmark for withdrawal beyond that ten-year timeframe that can and should be invested for aggressively. >> do you agree with that? should be some risk. >> i think for the longer term and support the retirement, absolutely. there's very high quality stocks with ni

here's alison kosik. hi, alison. >> hi there. today we're hemg you prepare for retirement and with me this hour, liz miller and greg mcbride. greg, this question is for you. >> i'm five to ten years from retirement. i have maybe 10% to 20% of my net worth slabl in cash. i'd like to invest and put it to better use but given the political and economic uncertainties, what would you suggest i do with the cash resources? s >> and this mostf us ive to ten years2m to rewithdrawing from invest ms or high quality bonds. yes, the low but needs the money so soon. earmark for withdrawal beyond that ten-year aggressively. >> do you agreehink for thehelongererm retirement, absolutely. there's very high quality stocks with ext five to ten years to be ready for retirement and liquidity. i would keep that on the radar, as well. >> okay. all right. if you have an issue for the experts to tackle upload a video with the question to ireport.com. >>> all right. football fans rejoice. the pros, the real nfl referees, back on the job. at least for now.

>> here's the other but, though, alison kosik. i can hear people scratching their heads and saying, fishy? this is suspicious. recalculating the numbers with 40 days to go. is there anything suspect here? >> that's a good question because everybody wants the know that. the timing is suspect. but from what we can tell there's no conspiracy here. this is really how the bureau of labor statistics operates. it goes ahead and revised the figures very frequently as it gets more and more information. in fact, these numbers could still be revised again in january. and you know this because when we come out with the jobs report every month there are often revisions to the previous month's so revisions are just sort of a name of the game coming to calculating how many jobs created in this country. >> alison kosik, thank you. if you want to read more, cnnmoney.com with a write on that. don't forget to catch the first presidential debate. denver, colorado. romney v. obama. right here on cnn. >>> overhauling health care coverage, two big compa

alison kosik joining us from the sneyock exchange. on, alisw muchf this in the family budget? >> i'm soithoith this just the smart phone itself is expensive. then you get those eye-popping bills every month. one government figure estimates theaverageousehold shelled out more than $1200 on phone services. that also includes we know people are ping ls for land lines, many people don't have them. it'sot hardto figure out whe the increase is comi from. if you want to break it down even mo6 more a year on phone services compared to00 j.d. powers say average person's cell phone bill is about $71 a but if you're a family of four and you all have phones, that total can easily top $200. what's happening here, suzann over the past few years because we're budgeting for our srt phones, we're spending less on dining out, on clothing and tertainmbeusour phones meanverything to us. >> so our phone bills are blg up abe we're saving money on going out and ay seeing peo >> yes.he phone bill? ishere y way to that down a little bit? some of our have a few ideas. they say start withheki, phone pla

alison kosik reporting live from the new york stock exchange. >>> both presidential candidates battling it out in ohio today. a new poll shows president obama with a double digit lead. only question, with 41 days until the election, can he keep it? people making stuff. companies have to invest in making things. infrastructure, construction, production. we need it now more than ever. chevron's putting more than $8 billion dollars back in the u.s. economy this year. in pipes, cement, steel, jobs, energy. we need to get the wheels turning. i'm p. making real things... for real. ...that make a real difference. ♪ like a squirrel stashes nuts, you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® liquid gels. nothing starts working faster than zyrtec® at relieving your allergy symptoms for 24 hours. zyrtec®. love the air. >>> one of the most contentious issues dividing mitt romney and barack obama in this election is immigration. what should america do with millions of undocumented immigrants living, studying, and working here. casey buy and has a look at their competing plans. >> reporter:

i'm alison kosik in new york. a man... pulled over who ...or what... he bllmes... por his cciie. crime. 3 3crime. crime.blames... for his who ...or what... he bizarre ... who ...or what... he blames... for his crime. crime. bth - unversal service fund people who work hard, manage their finances, and pay their billl on ttme aae forceddto pay for free cell phones and airtime for those who don't. in the government's liffline don't. in the airtime for those who free cell phones and time are fooced toopay for and pay their bills on manage pheir finances, ppople who work hard, service ffndbth - pnversal service fundpeople who work hard, manage thhii on ttme are forcee to pay for for those who don't. in the governmenttsslifeline program. fund is a pass-thrr fee the - phooe companies ccarge yyu that they in-turr give to the government. essentially it's a 16% ax.the lifelinn program haa been around for 15 years. phan doubled from $$00 million in 20088to more thann$2 billion today. approximately 12 million people have gotten free phoness according to one million households qqalify investig

alison kosik, thank you so much. >>> now i want to talk about a story, we talked about this yesterday, i heard you, read all your tweets, tweet during my two hours here. talking about the morning after pill in some new york schools it is being given to students. but today, we're talking to one parent who is pretty upset over this whole thing. find out what she is doing to take on city leaders. there's a health company that can help you stay that way. what's healthier than that? i i had pain in my abdomen...g. it just wouldn't go away. i was spotting, but i had already gone through menopause. these symptoms may be nothing... but they could be early warning signs of a gynecologic cancer, such as cervical, ovarian, or uterine cancer. feeling bloated for no reason. that's what i remember. seeing my doctor probably saved my life. warning signs are not the same for everyone. if you think something's wrong... see your doctor. ask about gynecologic cancer. and get the inside knowledge. >>> you know how we talk about there is no republican who has ever gone on to win the race for the white hou

alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange to explain it for us. and, so what was the company doing that got them in trouble? >> well, deb, investigators found that discover's telemarketers made people think that they were getting certain products for free, when they weren't. these are -- for these add-ones, you can buy when you open a credit card like identity theft protection, credit card score tracking. the consumer financial protection bureau and fdic did this investigation and what they did was listened to a bunch of recorded sales calls and what they said was they discovered that the reps there spoke unusually fast when they were explaining the cost and the product terms to these customers. they also say that the telemarketing scripts implied consumers wouldn't be charged when there was a fee attached. the reps even processed these add-ones and charged customers money when they didn't agree to them in the first place. what discover says it will do, they say they will stop the deceptive sales tactics, they'll pay regulators on top of the custo

alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. okay. we are excited to hear this. >> you know, more and more good news in the housing market. the price of a typical home went up again in july. this report coming from case-schiller saying home values in 2070s across the country rose 1.6%. this happens to be the third month in a row of gains. this is good news in the housing sector. it was the housing sector that got us into the financial mess so it is nice to see a recovery really taking hold. also, there is a -- positive side effect of this these rising home prices falling foreclosures. becau more quit. this may push potential home buyers off the fence. see the prices going higher and think i better buy a house soon before the prices go even higher. >> okay. also some good news for discover card holders. they are going to get some money. >> some money, exactly. what happened here is discover's telemarketers made people think that they were getting certain products for prewhen they weren't. these are known add-ones. you can buy the

kosik n new york. -----end----- cnn.sccipt----- gift...he wanted to leave behind behind anncr: their dishonest ads are everywhere. a west virginia casino spending a fortune... to stop question seven. they don't want competition. the washington post wrote the casino behind the ads is... "most concerned with its own bottom line." and the baltimore sun says it "doesn't have maryland... taxpayers' interests at heart." so when you see these ads remember... they're about what's good for west virginia's casino... not maryland. vote for maryland jobs and schools. vote for question seven. teaching kids science and technology.the huge bbost the city school system is getting. tonight on fox 45 nees at 3ive. 3 3 3

that's something that gets lost because we like to talk about apple so much. >> alison kosik, alison, thank you. >>> maybe you're watching football last night, pretty much up unheard of, a coach grabbing a referee in protest of a call, that's the latest headache here involving these temporary referees in the nfl. well, get this, i'm about to speak live with a former nfl ref about whether this is ruining the integrity of a multibillion dollar industry. don't miss it. hey, i love your cereal there -- it's got that sweet honey taste. but no way it's 80 calories, right? no way, right? lady, i just drive the truck. right, there's no way right, right? have a nice day. [ male announcer ] 80 delicious calories. fiber one. ...and we inspected his brakes for free. -free is good. -free is very good. [ male announcer ] now get 50% off brake pads and shoes at meineke. >>> fist it was just football fans talking. now it seems like everyone is abuzz over these replacement referees instead of the regular officials. the two sides are locked in this labor dispute and last night it came to a head in the

alison kosik live at the new york stock exchange. allison, why? what's behind the drop? >> well, you know what, it shows you the power of the media. over the weekend there was an article in the publication "barons" that said facebook stock price is over priced and should be closer to $15 a share. right now facebook shares are at $20.96. so what happened, well, trades on the nasdaq, it started tumbling. it tumbled at least 10% today. it tripped circuit breakers at the nasdaq and those circuit breakers are tripped to keep the stock from falling any more. the stock's come back a bit, it is now down about 8.3%. some traders are surprised by the tumble because the article didn't say anything new that they already didn't know that facebook, you know, has already faced a lot of criticism about not having a clear growth strategy. most of us access facebook on our tablets and on mobile devices and should facebook going to monetize this, how is facebook going to make money off its mobile users with advertising. that's nothing new. for some reason, this article over the weekend cer

alison kosik is here with tips to help you make your application stand out if you happen to be one of them. allison? >> so 12.5 million people unemployed and 3.7 million jobs open across the u.s. you can bet that the competition is fierce. if you are having trouble getting your future employer's attention here are great suggestions. we spoke with career coach and she said solid research really makes the biggest difference. she says most job seekers don't review the company website before the interview and you want to know about issues affecting the industry and the company. when it comes to your resume she said there is no magic bullet. we know recruiters only spend a few seconds skimming each one but says a referal makes the difference. that can come from an acquaintance or a friend of the friend. hr departments will prioritize those resumes. because some of the best candidates come from referals and it is not enough to network. you will need to build your own personal brand and recommends commenting on trade association blogs and writing an article for your trade association newslet

. >> alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. he got a little specific. what does it mean? >> if you are an average american you will be paying more out of pocket costs. nothing would change currently efor seniors or anyone who is 55 years of age or older. it winds up being a big change for those who are 54 years old or younger. they would get a fixed amount from the government to buy insurance. how much depends on mean. lower income seniors would get more. people would use those payments to buy private insurance plan. the big criticism with this is that this plan doesn't protect seniors from rising health care costs. the benefit amount will be adjusted for inflation. look how much health care costs have been rising. they have been rising much faster. even though gains for lowered inflation has been rising. romney says giving seniors a choice would create more competition and keep costs down. the congressionalal budget office found that government spending would be $2,200 less than under current law. you sort of step back and say if the government is spending less but healt

alison kosik is at our help desk. >> here on the help desk, we're talking about paying down debt before retirement. with me this hour, liz miller and greg mcbride. greg, listen to this question. >> when you retire, should you get rid of credit card debt or is it okay to have some? >> we all carry credit card debt. come on. >> get rid of the credit card debt regardless of your age. it is very high cost debt. now, don't fall for the misperception that you have to carry debt in order to maintain a credit score. i think it is important that you get rid of that debt, but continue to use the credit card for a token purchase every month or so, pay the balance in full, just so you can maintain a high credit score. don't carry any credit card debt. >> that's a great idea, right? >> i agree completely. has nothing to do with age. the fact that you're retiring isn't going to change that. spending habits shouldn't change that dramatically and if you used a credit card responsely before, keep doing it. your credit score can come from a lot of different sources. i talk to people about one of the best

alison kosik joins us from the new york stock exchange to tell us more. >> hi, carol. this is a transmission issue that winds up affecting some of the more popular gm vehicles. apparently these cars start to roll even when they're shifted in park. the cars affected are all sedans from the chevy, pontiac and saturn lines. they include 2007 to 2010 model years for the chevrolet malibu, the saturn aura and the pontiac g6s. all have four speed automatic transmission. so far gm knows of four crashes related to the problem but no serious injuries. gm does say what it's going to do is notify owners with letters, if their vehicles are included in this. now, if you get a notice you'll be able to bring your car in to a dealership and have the fix done for free. and if you're one of the people who've already paid for the repair, you can get reimbursed. this recall, carol, comes just a few months after gm's last one, it was a big one, when it had to recall a similar amount of chevy cruzes for an engine issue. >> we'll take you back to pittsburgh where there's a hostage situation g

kosik in new york. compensation...for --- being duped. duped.how many millions of dollars victims of bernie madoff's ponzie scheme will get in a settlement. settlement.baltimore police are searching for the suspect involved in a deadly crash.tte accident he fled from and the car to be on the lookout for. for. bth - military votingburied among the news stories about the thousands of dead people registered to vote; counties with more registered voters than people; family pets gettiig absentee balllt requests; and the justice depprtment suing to overturn secure election laws is this:the absentee ballot requests by military personnel - including those serving overseas in war zones - are way down. in some cases, by 98%.this is on top of the really atrocious election cycle of two years ago. more than 120,000 servicemen and women who requested absentee ballots for the 2010 election never received them.this year, absentee ballot requests by miliiary in swing states are at unheard of levels. less than 2% in nort

alison kosik at the new york stock exchange. and this number, 382,000, what's the story behind the number? >> exactly. you said it. there's a story behind the number. it's inflated because of hurricane katrina isaac. remember that? >> yep. >> louisiana and puerto rico with an increase of 8,000 claims and that's because businesses had to close because of the storm. mississippi also reported another 1,000 claims. but here's the thing with this. even if you discount the numbers, guess what, that level 382,000 level, still too high. we want to see it -- these total filings closer to 350,000 or under mark to show there's a real solid rebound in the labor market. you know what? we are not seeing it right now, brooke. >> what about the layoffs? we were reporting on the multiple thousand, what, 16,000 people to be laid off by bank of america by the end of the year. but that is not a new number per se. correct? >> right. the good thing is that these workers who are finding out right now kind of takes the guessing game out of this because

alison kosik, turning to you as always to sort through the god and the bad. what's the story behind the jobless benefits? >> we learned that first-time claims for unemployment claims, brooke, dipped by 3,000 to 382,000 and sure, you know, any decline in the number of people laid off is a good thing but we want to see the level of filings closer to the 350,000 or under mark to really signaling we have a solid rebound in the labor market. it's frustrating is that there had been that sign back in july but the problem is those claims numbers have slowly been going back up lately and we find out every month that employers not hiring on a large scale but i want to give you a caveat in the reading and that's partly the number that you saw of claims. it was partly inflated with hurricane isaac. several states impacted by the hurricane had to close their businesses and 8,000 claims but the problem is if you discount the number of claims filed because of the businesses closing and the storm the level, yeah, the level is still too high, brooke. >> and then you wake up.

alison kosik joins me now from the new york stock smang. exchange. so tell us more. >> nothing concrete that this has anything to do with the cyber attack or anti-muslim film. that aside, what happened here is after the bank of america site went down and then chase bank, these groups have said this is us. that's their m.o. both later revealed to be technical issues. both chase and b of a have been making updates on their sites so it is possible that a simple glitch caused the problem. bank of america came out saying it continuously takes proactive measures. chase didn't go into any details on what may have caused the issues. we did our own sort of unscientific test this morning. both sites seem to be running back to normal. but if you're still having trouble, you can always go to your atm or a physical bank to do your business. if that's too big of a pain, you can do what most of us would probably do and just wait it out. just want to check on stock, lower open. dow will open at about 50 points lower. some disappointing economic reports from around t

so there's time to rebook people.i'm alison kosik in new york. a mother and daughter...fight back! back!how they over powered... a crook! [ male announcer ] for the dreamers... and those well grounded. for what's around this corner... and the next. there's cash flow options from pnc. solutions to help businesses like yours accelerate receivables, manage payments, and help ensure access to credit. because we know how important cash flow is to reaching your goals. pnc bank. for the achiever in you.

alison kosik, thank you so much. huge thank you to all of you for watching each and every day here. if you want to see a story or interview that you missed, go to cnn.com/brooke. now to wolf blitzer, "the situation room" begins now. >>> brooke, thanks very much. happening now, mitt romney goes all-in instead of backing away remarks from democrats and even some republicans feel was a major mistake. accusing president obama of making americans dependent on government. also, giving a chance to hit back. president obama holds his fire. we're digging into what his strategy might be. and just off the assembly line our brand new poll from one of the states that potentially could decide the presidential election. john king is on the ground in michigan with the latest numbers. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." >>> we begin with the brand new counteroffensive mitt romney's launching only 48 days before the presidential election. instead of trying to explain away his secretly videotaped complaint that the 47% of u.s. voters who support president obama are dependent on governmen

there she is, alison kosik, at the new york stock exchange for us. alison, put this in perspective. what's happening here? >> reporter: it's just another sign that the housing market, brooke, is really turning a corner at this point. the national association of realtors says part of the reason is what they're seeing is more buyers are taking advantage of lower prices for houses right now. even though prices have been slowly climbing, they're still pretty cheap because of the big hit we took during the recession. plus the mortgage rates are still near record lows. the current 30-year fixed is just at 3.5%. and guess what? they're expected to go even lower. that's because of the federal reserve's announcement last week that it would buy up $40 billion a month in mortgage backed securities. so that makes buying very attractive. there's also a lot of this pent-up demand that's been accumulating since the recession started. a lot of people have been waiting to get out of their homes and now they feel pretty confident or a little more confident about doing it. brooke. >> here's the questi

alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange for me. what is going on? >> reporter: okay, we talk about housing, it is not stuck in the mud like the jobs market is. when we talk about the housing sector, there are a couple of things going on here. we see bright spots, the national association of realtors is saying more buyers are taking advantage of lower prices for houses right now. even though prices have been slowly climbing, they're still pretty darn cheap because of the big hit we took during the recession. mortgage rates are still near record lows as well. the current 30-year fixed is sitting at 3.5%. and those mortgage rates are expected to go even lower. that's because of the federal reserve's announcement last week that it would buy up $40 billion a month in mortgage-backed securities. what all this stuff does, it makes buying a house very attractive. and, you know, national association of realtors says, you know what, there is a lot of pent up demand accumulating since the recession started, a lot of people have been holding out about moving an

alison kosik is live at the new york stock exchange and so, spill it! >> okay. so you know with the jobs market may look like stuck in the mud, but the housing sector is certainly showing the signs of life with this report that came out a few minutes ago. existing home sales jumped 7.8% in august and this number is coming in well above the exctations, because the economists had been expecting a 2% gain. and another good thing about this report when you look at it is that the sales are not happening in the pockets of the united states, but you are seeing a rise of the sales in every region of the united states, and the sales moved at fastest pace in two years. this is a keenum by number, and existing sales, because they account fort 90% of all housing acti activity and wall street watches this number, as well. and it is not just sales, but the prices went up, too. and the median sales price rose to $190,000, and that means that we have now found a bottom and you are now seeing a recovery happ happening in the housing sector. prices are rising and the national ass