Ricardo Cortez's (rcortez) Blog

1) Lower home prices - yes, prices are going down, especially here in the west, and specifically, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Fountain Hills and other East Valley cities where we saw one of the biggest national drop. Inventories remain high. However, lower prices are creating buying opportunities which ...

Some interesting results relative to which builders are selling product.  RL Brown reports these statistics   DR Horton's offering at Riata West produced 45 sales in July. Pulte Homes at Red Rock Village gained 17 sales.  The list of builders with five or more sales for the month has risen to 104...

The most recent RL Brown Report has been issued.  Following are the highlights:       RL Brown makes some interesting predictions relative to how homebuilders will do business in the future. "With the shifts in credit criteria, the probability of higher mortgage rates in the near and mid-terms, t...

Let's stop pretending this race is as close as national polling suggests. The truth is McCain is essentially tied or trailing in every swing state that matters - and too close for comfort in several states like Indiana and Montana the GOP usually wins pretty easily in presidential races. On top o...

Two weeks, ago , I wrote the following article on my blog Wexzilla.com asking the question i are Down Payment assistance programs are Cash-back fraud  In the midst of the mortgage crisis, rising interest rates and tighter lending and the disappearance of 100% financing, one lending option remains...

Wall Street tumbled Friday after the government said personal incomes fell last month by the largest amount in nearly three years while consumer spending slowed. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 170 points, while a disappointing profit report from computer maker Dell Inc. weighed o...

Builders are selling. Check out these statistics from the recent Arizona real estate report A new report just issued the following stats.   DR Horton's offering at Riata West produced 45 sales in July. Pulte Homes at Red Rock Village gained 17 sales.  The list of builders with five or more sales ...

  credit scores, a powerful little three-digit number ranging from 300 to 850. Requesting your credit reports and scores is a good way to start taking control of your money. There is one most common credit score used by banks to make decisions: the FICO score, developed originally by Fair Isaac C...

as we all know, ...When it comes to buying real estate, Patience, prudence, insight, educated decision making and a little luck can present you with promising opportunities. However, financial professionals, will often tell you that “Risk evaluation" is probably the most important criteria one mu...

according to wall street analysts, concern still looms for Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac unless these companies can raise capital. If the companies capital falls too much, they could be forced by their government regulator to suspend dividend payments to preferred shareholders, said Brian Harris, a se...