Home sales and prices in the San Antonio area soared in September amid pent-up demand, low interest rates and a tight supply of available homes.

Buyers in Bexar and surrounding counties closed on 3,623 homes last month, up about 32 percent from September 2019, the San Antonio Board of Realtors reported Tuesday. Sales year-to-date are up about 8 percent compared with the same period in 2019.

The median price rose about 11 percent to $261,200.

“The significant growth in sales compared to last year shows the housing sector as a possible factor to move the economy forward,” said Kim Bragman, SABOR’s 2020 board chairman. “We are hopeful to see a positive growth of sales for the remainder of the year.”

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Around 68 percent of the homes sold in September were priced between $200,000 and $499,999, compared

Come April 13 next year, home routers will have to meet new security requirements before they can be put up for sale in Singapore. These include unique login credentials and default automatic downloads of security patches. 

The new mandate is aimed at improving the security of these devices, which are popular targets amongst malicious hackers who are looking to breach home networks, according to industry regulator Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). Stipulated as being part of the country’s Technical Specifications for Residential Gateways, the enhanced security requirements were finalised following an earlier consultation exercise that sought feedback from the public and industry. 

While these mandates are set to come into effect from 13 April 2021, home routers previously approved by IMDA will be allowed to remain on sale until October 12 next year.

Users of existing home routers will not need to change their current routers, but they are encouraged

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Google is asking employees to more closely monitor internal message boards after an increase in posts flagged for racism or abuse, which it attributed to employees using the message boards more frequently as they work from home and the rise of “tough global conversations,” according to internal documents obtained by CNBC.

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