RECENT BLOG POSTS
The Pending Home Sales Index moved higher in March as home sales were spurred by low mortgage rates and an expiring tax credit. A "pending home" is a property that is under contract to sell, but not yet closed. March marks the second straight month in which the Pending Home Sales Index improved a...
05/14/2010
For the first time this year, Fannie Mae announced significant updates to its mortgage underwriting guidelines. The changes include newer, harsher ARM qualification standards, the elimination of a once-popular loan product, and tighter rules for interest only mortgages. Fannie Mae made its offic...
05/13/2010
Earlier this week, Standard & Poors released its February Case-Shiller Index, a home price tracker for select metropolitan areas. Overwhelmingly, home values fell in the 20 markets tracked by the Case-Shiller. Only San Diego showed a modest increase. The other 19 markets averaged a 1.23 percen...
05/06/2010
p>Today, the Federal Open Market Committee voted 9-to-1 to leave the Fed Funds Rate unchanged within in its current target range of 0.000-0.250 percent. In its press release, the FOMC noted that, since March, the U.S. economy "has continued to strengthen" and that the jobs markets "is beginning t...
05/06/2010
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p>The sales of newly-built homes soared in March. Even more than what was expected. But the news may not be as glowing as what the media is telling us. Take a look at the headlines from last Friday: Sales of new homes rocketed up 27 percent in March (WaPo) New-home sales rise fastest in 47 years ...
05/06/2010
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They say "the only constant is change...", yet last week's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee ended without any major changes...no change to the Fed Funds Rate, and no change to the now-famous verbiage in their Policy Statement, stating that rates will remain low for an "extended perio...
05/03/2010
Existing Home Sales rose in March, as expected. U.S. home buyers closed on 7 percent more homes as compared to February. Furthermore, versus March 2009 -- a month many people equate to the low point of the U.S. economy -- sales volume was up 16 percent. "Existing home sale" is the technical term ...
04/28/2010
More than 60 percent of U.S. homes are "over-assessed", says an industry trade group. Homeowners pay more in property taxes than they otherwise should have to. You might be one of them. Have you considered fighting your real estate tax bill? In this 4-minute piece from The Today Show, you'll le...
04/28/2010
Mortgage rates and home affordability have improved lately, thanks to an unlikely ally -- Mother Nature. In the 7 days since Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull erupted, ash clouds have grounded planes, disrupted businesses, and stranded exports in warehouses worldwide. It's a drag on commerce that's spil...
04/28/2010
After a strong March showing and a surprise upward-revision for February, Housing Starts are, once again, trending better. It's yet another signal that the housing market nationwide is stabilized. A Housing Start is a new home on which construction has started and, over the last 6 months, home bu...
04/25/2010