After months of low rates some of which broke long-time records, mortgage interest rates shot up drastically during the week ended June 4. Freddie Mac released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market survey this morning, showing that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) for the week averaged 5.29...
In spite of the beating the stock market took on Monday with the Dow Jones down 242 points and even though financial stocks were among the biggest losers, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae shares came roaring back from their awful performance on Friday. Roaring back is a relative description as the two stocks...
Another bad day for the financial markets as two of its major players, Fannie Mae and Swiss banking power UBS announced big losses on mortgage related investments. UBS said that it would have first-quarter losses of $10.9 billion and would cut 5,500 jobs, nearly half in its investment banking unit. The...
The Office of the Chief Economist of Freddie Mac issued its monthly economic outlook for July on Monday and, in the narrative provided a helpful analysis of the reasons for the confusing messages emerging from various reports on current house prices. The outlook states the obvious; the housing market...
The January 2007 Economic Outlook which is published last week by the Office of the Chief Economist at Freddie Mac was headlined " The Remodeled Housing Market " and was focused on economic trends. But first it recapped the current housing market: an 11 percent November 2005 to November 2006 drop in...
Slower economic growth and rising inflationary pressures are cited as competing trends in the U.S. economy by Freddie Mac in its monthly Economic Outlook for August which was released on Wednesday. The report contrasted the growth in the economy during the first half of the year which was perking along...
Freddie Mac issued its monthly "outlook" for the month of July as well as a round-up of the first half of 2006 . While the report still projects a housing market that is undergoing a "moderate and orderly cooling," a comparison to the January outlook shows a slight decline in optimism. Freddie harkened...
Last month we ended our report on Freddie Mac's April Economic Outlook with the statement that "Freddie Mac's April Economic Outlook deviates only slightly from predictions in earlier months; the housing market is slowing but certainly not screeching to a halt." May's report which was issued this week...