Fri, Jul 20 2007, 7:00 AM
The homebuilding industry is obviously in distress. But, in testimony
before the House Financial Services Committee, Federal Reserve Chairman
Ben B...
Thu, Jul 19 2007, 7:00 AM
Short-term adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) were unchanged during the
last week, but longer term fixed and adjustable rate mortgages did move;
if up...
Wed, Jul 18 2007, 7:00 AM
An otherwise very smart real estate attorney once said to a
friend "Nobody understands dual agency." It seemed like a weird thing for
a lawyer to sa...
Tue, Jul 17 2007, 7:00 AM
At the end of June the five agencies that regulate federally chartered
banks and their subsidiary lending corporations issued final
guidance to th...
Mon, Jul 16 2007, 7:00 AM
Fri, Jul 13 2007, 7:00 AM
It seems that nary a week can pass without a subprime
disaster of some type. This week is no exception although there
was at least a bit of variet...
Thu, Jul 12 2007, 7:00 AM
According to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the
previous week, long term interest rates were down for
the third week in a row....
Wed, Jul 11 2007, 7:00 AM
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 an...
Tue, Jul 10 2007, 7:00 AM
The Mortgage Bankers Association released the results of two
surveys covering the mortgage world in the second half of 2006 on
Tuesday.
84 lend...
Fri, Jul 6 2007, 7:00 AM
The Federal Reserve Board released the final statement of federal
regulatory agencies on subprime mortgage lending
recently. The release was done ...
Thu, Jul 5 2007, 7:00 AM
Mortgage rates decreased for the second week in a row
according to the results of Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey
for the previous wee...
Thu, Jul 5 2007, 7:00 AM
Another big mortgage corporation has sent out early warning signals
about its financial health in the wake of the virtual
collapse of the subprime...
Tue, Jul 3 2007, 7:00 AM
Every few years there is a calamitous fire high in loss of life that
pushes fire sprinkler systems into the public
discussion. Recently it was the...
Fri, Jun 29 2007, 7:00 AM
A few things have happened in the last few days that may ultimately
ease what many are calling an onrushing foreclosure train
wreck .
While some...
Wed, Jun 27 2007, 7:00 AM
According to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the
previous week, the market has rolled back a small portion of the large
increases i...
Tue, Jun 26 2007, 7:00 AM
The National Association of Realtors can always be depended upon to
put the best face on housing news.
The monthly report on the sales of existin...
Mon, Jun 25 2007, 7:00 AM
Fri, Jun 22 2007, 7:00 AM
The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies recently released its
annual State of the Nation's Housing report for 2007. It is
dismal reading.
...
Wed, Jun 20 2007, 7:00 AM
Interest rates as reported by Freddie Mac and those
published by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) diverged sharply for
the week ending June 1...
Tue, Jun 19 2007, 7:00 AM
Two measures of the housing market were released this
week and each shows that, at best, builders are remaining cautious; at
worst they are showin...
Fri, Jun 15 2007, 7:00 AM
On Tuesday RealtyTrac released some pretty scary
numbers relating to foreclosures .
Results of the quarterly National Delinquency Survey conduc...
Thu, Jun 14 2007, 7:00 AM
We recently ran across this add on Craigslist:
" BORROW SOMEONE'S CREDIT SCORE WHILE WE FIX
YOURS
You heard me... I'll get your score up to...
Wed, Jun 13 2007, 7:00 AM
Mortgage rates continued to climb during the week
ended June 7 according to the results of Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage
Market Survey.
Frank N...
Tue, Jun 12 2007, 7:00 AM
We said several weeks ago that a big believer in the value of Second
Life real estate is the very grounded-to-earth firm of Coldwell
Banker . We ...
Mon, Jun 11 2007, 7:00 AM
Two days, two economic forecasts; the first which we reported on
earlier from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) showed a rapid
deterioratio...
Fri, Jun 8 2007, 7:00 AM
The National Association of Realtors has backpedaled
on previous housing forecasts with it U.S. Economic Outlook report for
June released on Wedne...
Thu, Jun 7 2007, 7:00 AM
As the problems with subprime mortgages continue to work through the
system, GreenPoint Mortgage , a subsidiary of
Capital One Financial has anno...
Wed, Jun 6 2007, 7:00 AM
Longer term mortgage rates hit 2007 highs during last
week according to the results of Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market
Survey. With the exce...
Tue, Jun 5 2007, 7:00 AM
Flips are beginning to crowd the market as home sales slow. Investors
who mistimed the market are finding that it is taking
much longer than they ...
Fri, Jun 1 2007, 7:00 AM
It's not exactly like waiting for Christmas or the first day of summer
vacation, but we do look forward to the release of our favorite housing
repor...
Thu, May 31 2007, 7:00 AM
Wed, May 30 2007, 7:00 AM
Maybe it is just temporary, but it looks like the worm - that is the
mortgage interest rate version of it - has finally
turned.
Freddie Mac's P...
Tue, May 29 2007, 7:00 AM
There is some additional news and a bit of a sidebar to the story
about the 60 Minutes feature on Redfin a week or so ago
and the strong reaction ...
Fri, May 25 2007, 7:00 AM
Thu, May 24 2007, 7:00 AM
According to Frank Nothaft , vice present and chief
economist of Freddie Mac, "Mortgage rates inched up this week following
the Federal Open Market...
Wed, May 23 2007, 7:00 AM
Never underestimate Sir Richard Branson .
The mega-millionaire Brit has been an innovator from the beginning of
his career and now it is hard to r...
Tue, May 22 2007, 7:00 AM
NAHB's chief economist David Seiders said, "The pattern of building
permits clearly shows that the dramatic downward
correction in housing productio...
Wed, May 16 2007, 7:00 AM
It didn't take the National Association of Realtors
(NAR) long to come out swinging at CBS after the network
aired a report on discount real est...
Wed, May 16 2007, 7:00 AM
"Low employment growth in April - the slowest pace since November
2004 - and downward revisions to both February and March job growth
tempered marke...
Wed, May 16 2007, 7:00 AM
But a big part of the Second Life economy is virtual real
estate and besides entrepreneurship many factors motivate
residents to purchase property...
Tue, May 15 2007, 7:00 AM
How can something that is virtual be real? Over 6 million
people apparently find no problem with the concept as they
socialize, create, build, and...
Fri, May 11 2007, 7:00 AM
Every so often a house comes on the market that is said to be
stigmatized . Most of the time the stigma is in the mind
of one or two buyers, but so...
Thu, May 10 2007, 7:00 AM
With the growth of house price appreciation now stalled or even
reversed, this has fueled fears that homeowners may face an inability to
withdraw eq...
Wed, May 9 2007, 7:00 AM
The two mortgage rate surveys we follow each week
showed few significant changes for the weeks ended May 3 (Freddie Mac)
and May 4 (Mortgage Banke...
Tue, May 8 2007, 7:00 AM
Declining home sales and prices have not succeeded in discouraging
homeowners from pulling equity out of their homes
according to Freddie Mac's qu...
Mon, May 7 2007, 7:00 AM
Two associations representing owners of multi-family
properties have brought suit again the Department of Housing and
Urban Development over new r...
Fri, May 4 2007, 7:00 AM
It seems impossible to get a clear look at the housing situation these
days. Where there is hope there is despair, if good news there is bad,
existi...
Thu, May 3 2007, 7:00 AM
Lots of news on the mortgage front in the last few days.
...A second part of the proposed legislation is designed to "seal the
cracks in our regul...