Eric Grathwol's (grathwol) Blog

August 25, 2009   What does our economic recovery mean for interest rates?   I wish I knew, exactly.  But, all I can really do is make an educated guess.  As you can imagine, it's very dependent on what type of recovery we see.   You're probably hearing the same alphabet soup of recovery letters ...

August 3, 2009   Have you ever taken a road trip, knowing your destination, but not knowing exactly how to get there?   I've used that analogy before.  It's very fitting for what Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his car-load of Federal Reserve Board members are doing as they guide our economy back t...

July 7, 2009   Since we've put the first half of 2009 behind us, it's time to review the predictions/educated guesses I made for this year, and see how on - or off - the mark I was.   1) Mortgage Interest Rates:  I did well on this one.  I thought mortgage rates would hover around the 5% range fo...

June 12, 2009   Who's afraid of a little inflation?   Granted, if you missed the latest window of opportunity with super-low interest rates, where they ranged between 4.625% and 5% for about 6 months - you might be a little bummed about the market's fears, and the recent rate hikes they've spurre...

May 27, 2009   "As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know.  But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know." - Donald Rumsfeld, 2002   He might...

May 1, 2009   What does the movie Caddyshack have to do with today's economic outlook?   Be the ball, Danny.  Be the ball.   Caddyshack is one of my all-time favorite movies.  I often say that everything we need to know in life can be seen and learned in Caddyshack.  As Ty tells Danny, so famousl...

March 17, 2009   Well, it's been a month since my last update.  Not because there hasn't been any news about the economy, bail outs, etc. but really in spite of that, mortgage rates have clung to this 5% range (4.875%-5.125% for 30yr fixed money).   Despite the stock market finding a new floor, b...

February 4, 2009 As Yogi Berra said, "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there."   How we got here, is now pretty obvious.  Whether by our government, corporations, or individuals, there was a lot of living beyond our means, without any r...

January 4, 2009   Happy New Year!  I hope the Holidays treated you well and I wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009.   First off, I want to thank you for helping me have a great 2008.  My business thrives on your thinking of me when you think of real estate financing.   I truly appreciate...

December 24, 2008 Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and best wishes for a fun, joyous, and safe Holiday, whatever you celebrate!   Well, 30 Year Fixed mortgage rates managed to briefly hit a new floor of 4.5% (cost/points varied by the hour) over the last week, after the Fed's Open Market Committe...