Carl Rizzuto's (crizzuto) Blog

Distressed Homes Now Selling At A 20 Percent Discount   The housing market recovery stalled last month. At least temporarily. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, Existing Home Sales slipped 1 percent in April from the month prior, falling to 5.05 million units on a seasonally-adju...

Building Permits Fade Faster Than Expected   Single-family housing starts dropped by 21,000 units in April on a seasonally-adjusted annual basis. The Housing Starts report measures the number of homes on which new construction "broke ground". It's tracked by the U.S. Department of Commerce which ...

Rising Retail Sales Threaten Low Mortgage Rates   Another day, another piece of evidence that the U.S. economy is expanding. Thursday, the Census Bureau released the April Retail Sales report. Excluding cars and auto parts, retail receipts rose for the 10th straight month and, at $321 billion, re...

Conforming ARMs From 2004-2006 Are Adjusting To 3 Percent   When a mortgage applicants chooses an adjustable-rate mortgage over a fixed-rate one, he accepts a risk that - at some point in the future - the mortgage's interest rate will rise. Lately, though, that hasn't been the outcome. Since mid-...

Geopolitics Have Mortgage Rates Poised To Change   Among the most challenging aspects of shopping for a mortgage is how rates change constantly. It's hard to pin them down. For example, in 2011, mortgage rates have expired every 3-and-a-half hours, on average. That's fast. There's two main cataly...