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Real Estate and Banking In The News
The housing market continues to take one foot forward and one backward, despite some signs that housing may be reaching a bottom, out comes a report that foreclosure activity in this year’s first quarter was the highest on record. More than 616,000 homes were hit with foreclosures actions. Mortgage delinquencies also hit record highs, with [...]
Continue reading...Another Rocky Week For The Mortgage And Housing Market
6. June 2009
Mortgages rates got crushed this week as the bond yields continued to rise. The yield on the 10 Year Bond rose from the 3.45% range to hit a yearly high 3.85% and with it mortgage rates on 30 Year fixed conforming rates rose to the 5.50% to 5.75% range for someone having 720 plus credit [...]
Continue reading...This Week In The Mortgage Market
30. May 2009
This week brought huge swings with the yields on bonds. The yield on the 10 Year Bond has risen from its low of 2.2% to a 6 month high of 3.77% before setting at the end of the week at 3.46%. Much of the increases were due to the worry about long term inflation as [...]
Continue reading...Can We Really Believe Some Recent Economic Reports??
26. May 2009
Recently it’s hard to believe some of the economic reports that say the economy is ready to make a recovery. I say this because on a day a report showed that the National Home Price index fell a record 19.1% during the first quarter of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008, another report [...]
Continue reading...Is Now the Time to Buy a Home? Are things getting better?
20. May 2009
Home prices in the U.S. are the most affordable in the last 20 years. For a home to be deemed affordable , a family making the median national income which is $64,000 must be able to buy a home and have their gross monthly income account for no more than 28% towards the mortgage payment. [...]
Continue reading...Economic Indicators – Can you believe them?
6. May 2009
Seems like some U.S. consumers believe that the economy is beginning to look rosy..while others do not think the worst of the U.S. economic crisis is behind them. Question is, which camp do you fall into, only time will tell which group is correct. The Federal Reserve is playing it’s typical word game, in one [...]
Continue reading...National Association of Home Builders Confidence Index
2. May 2009
There has been a correlation over the past years between the National Association of Home Builders confidence and the returns of the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock market index. From 1995 through 2005, builder confidence was a near-perfect predictor of future stock market returns. In November 2006, builder confidence was down 54% from its high, [...]
Continue reading...Record Jump in Foreclosures
2. May 2009
Foreclosure filings starts soured to a record in March of 290,000 up 20% from a reported 243,000 in February. Hope Now, a coalition of mortgage lenders, servicers, investors and community groups were trying their best to fight the foreclosure plague. They helped rewrite 134,000 mortgages, another 115,000 were granted repayment plans. Repayment plans merely postpone [...]
Continue reading...Inexpensive Home Fix Ups To Enhance Value
2. May 2009
These days if you are selling your home or just what to upgrade to enhance it’s value here are some inexpensive things that you can do yourself. For the outside of your home, upgrade your mailbox, edge and mulch the beds around your home, fertilizer the lawn. For the inside of your home, paint neutral [...]
Continue reading...Vacation Home Best Buys
30. April 2009
With the housing bubble bust there are now some great housing buying opportunities. Median housing values have fell 10-20% in the past year and could fall further in the next 12 months. The areas where homes have lost the most value are California, Las Vegas, Florida and Arizona. If you have ever wanted a second [...]
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7. June 2009
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