Recent Articles
Beverly Hills Real Estate - A Sign of Things to Come?
written by Sarah Strauss
According to the Micro Market Report, a local report published by Teles Properties in Beverly Hills, real estate sales are on the rise in the posh locale. The report suggests first-time home buyers are back in the market, pushing the median sale price up from $1.475 million in March 2008 to $1.74 million in April. [...]
Fed Lowers Rate…Down to 2% Now
written by Sarah Strauss
The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to lower its target for the federal funds rate 25 basis points to 2 percent.
Recent information indicates that economic activity remains weak. Household and business spending has been subdued and labor markets have softened further. Financial markets remain under considerable stress, and tight credit conditions and the deepening [...]
New Liabilities May Damage United States’ AAA Credit Rating
written by John Crenshaw
Since the subprime mess rocked the mortgage world early this year, the government has authorized the quasi-governmental agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to lessen their qualification requirements and allow more homeowners to refinance into conforming loans. In doing so, these agencies have taken on a greater risk in an effort to alleviate some of [...]
Jumbo-Conforming Loan Limit Up to $729,750
written by John Crenshaw
In accordance with the Economic Stimulus Package signed into law earlier this year, conforming mortgage loan limits have increased in many areas around the country. According to Fannie Mae, these increases are by county and will not affect all counties in the U.S.1
The measure is designed to ease the troubled housing market and the economy [...]
Washington Mutual Shuts Down Wholesale Lending
written by Sarah Strauss
Washington Mutual made the decision yesterday to shut down operation of it’s wholesale lending arm as well as close the doors on all of its standalone home loan centers according to a WAMU spokeswoman1.
WAMU and the Subprime Market
WAMU made what now seems like a pretty bad decision several years ago to enter the subprime mortgage [...]
Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter Gets Sued
written by John Crenshaw
I was doing a quick search for a website someone told me about a while back because I couldn’t remember the URL. The site is the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter and, for those who haven’t seen it, it tracks the mortgage companies that have gone under since, according to the website, late 2006.
Presidential Candidate Economic Views
written by John Crenshaw
If you’re wondering where the current presidential candidates stand on economic views, Bankrate’s got a great series of articles on the topic:
Candidate Views on the Subprime Mortgage Crisis
Candidate Views on Employment
Candidate Views on Social Security
Candidate Views on Health Care
Candidate View on Taxes
Candidate Views on Education
Yet Another Interest Rate Cut by the Fed - Down .5%
written by John Crenshaw
Wow, the Fed is really getting aggressive with interest rates these days! We really did not see such aggressive cuts as something the Fed was going to do, but apparently a recession is obviously a major worry at this point, and inflation risk is something the Fed sees as worth taking on considering the current [...]
This Hasn’t Happened in a Long Time - Fixed Mortgage Rates at 4.375%!
written by John Crenshaw
Yesterday’s announcement by the Fed that it would be dropping interest rates another .75%, combined with the beating the stock markets are taking has driven long-term mortgage rates as low as they’ve been in years. We’re seeing 15-year fixed rates down around 4.375% at par, and 30-year fixed mortgage rates in the mid to high [...]