Bruce's Blog

It has been a busy time since my last post.  WAMU collapsed into the arms of JP Morgan, the exiting President, Mr. Fishman, receiving about $1,000,000 per day for his 19 days of service.  Wachovia, suffering from indigestion from their earlier purchase of World Savings apparently, faded into Citi...

Heard that line before.  Never seems to work out quite the way it was promised up front.  One wise mentor maintains that there is an inverse law at work in government.  Whatever the government tries to do, the reverse happens.  There are myriad examples, but the bottom line seems always to be tha...

Much more about the developing situation around these two former GSE entities in the news today.  When these two agencies were first birthed by Congress about 40 years ago, the goal was to bring order and stability to the mortgage lending activity in America.  Prior to their creation, mortgage le...

Dateline - Washington DC Two interesting bits of news in from the Potomac.  This first item from the Washington Post... U.S. Seizes Control of Mortgage Giants Washington Post (09/08/08) P. A1; Irwin, Neil; Goldfarb, Zachary A. "The federal bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac involves putting th...

In today's real estate market, selling a home requires more imagination and more effort than in more typical markets. Even if you have a pretty house with equity in the property, most of the available buyer pool will need to sell their property before buying another. While the idea of exchanging ...

Yes, the real estate market has changed in most of the country.  See details here Real Estate Decline Charts But the basics remain the same. Prices have fallen, more in some areas than in others, and continue to fall. But the basics remain the same. Record numbers of foreclosures plague most area...

Short sales are plentiful today and many real estate agents either struggle with working through them or shy away from what can be profitable business for the agent.  Foreclosure is a fact of life in today's market as we recover from the lending excesses of the past few years and as real estate v...

There are many remodeling options available to make your home more comfortable now and more appealing to buyers down the road. But which options will offer the highest return on your investment? Each year the nations Realtors rate remodels and upgrades that offer the highest return for your dolla...

This just in by Cecilia Kang, Washington Post Staff Writer, on Saturday, July 19, 2008; Page D01 --- "A long-delayed merger between the nation's two satellite radio providers may be facing another hurdle after a key regulator yesterday told the companies they would need to make stronger concessio...

How about that!  A new subprime lender discovered by Beal Bank, and they appear to be a bit put out by the discovery too. According to the Washington Post (07/22/08) P. D2, "FDIC Sued Over Subprime Loans: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which insures U.S. bank deposits, made subprime mortgag...