Buyers of Pricey Homes Get a Break

Jimmy Garza has been waiting for weeks for President Bush to sign the economic-stimulus package, which should allow him to refinance the $560,000 mortgage on his home in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and get a new, lower-rate loan.
Garza and other homeowners and buyers in such high-cost states as California, New York and Florida will get an extra - but only temporary - break from the federal stimulus package: lower interest rates for so-called