Due to current economic conditions, mortgage rates have hit an all-time low. If you’re looking to refinance, now may be the best time. Especially considering the Fed recently cut the Fed Funds rate target to 0%, which signals that we’ll almost certainly be facing some serious inflation in the near future as a result. And, [...]

On July 30th, 2008, President Bush signed into law the Homeownership and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, also known as HERA, that put into effect a number of changes to the way the mortgage system operates. Licenses Required for Mortgage Originators For the first time, mortgage originators are now required to be registered and licensed [...]

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has requested that Congress give him the remainder of the $700 billion TARP funds approved in the hopes of steering the U.S. Economy away from recession. The original plan for the TARP money called for Paulson to use the funds on the purchase of illiquid assets from firms in the [...]

According to an article by People, Guy Ritchie and Madonna’s separation, though reportedly civil, is resulting in a lump sum payment to Guy Ritchie of between $76 and $92 million. Incidentally, that more than doubles Ritchie’s current net worth. Ritchie is the director of such movies as Snatch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and [...]

The Federal Open Market Committee, in a meeting on Tuesday, set a target for the Federal Funds rate of 0 – 0.25%, the lowest rate on record. This is a sign that the Fed is willing to go to nearly any extent to see that our current economic situation reverses itself. We’ve reported in the [...]

Dave Carpenter wrote an article distributed by the Associated Press about “Steering clear of investment fraud.” He’s got a great explanation of a Ponzi scheme, the scheme that Madoff was running where he bilked investors out of an estimated $50 billion. Mr. Carpenter explains the most reliable credentials for investment advisers, CFP (Certified Financial Planner), [...]

Former NASDAQ Chairman, Bernard Madoff has allegedly been running a Wall Street ponzi scheme of epic proportions, bilking investors out of an estimated $50 billion. Madoff is the founder of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC and separately managed money for high-net-worth individuals and hedge funds through an investment advisory business he oversaw. Madoff was [...]

The financial markets have been wiping the floor with investors lately, and, as T-Bill rates hit 0.0304%, investors are moving toward the safety of short-term assets. Carlos Leitao, chief strategist and economist at Laurentian Bank, calls it a “huge wave of panic,” and likens the situation to investors stuffing money under their mattresses. The current [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced Tuesday that it would lend up to $85 billion to AIG (American International Group) in an effort to help the struggling investment giant avoid bankruptcy. The Fed suggested in a press release that the terms of the agreement aim to protect the interests of the U.S. government [...]

As if the financial markets haven’t been in enough turmoil lately, one of the world’s largest banks, Lehman Brother, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy early this morning. Lehman Brothers has been a player in the financial sector since its founding in 1850 and this news has opened some eyes to the severity of the nation’s [...]

It’s been quite a week. Financial stocks were in the spotlight on Wall Street over fears that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be in trouble, and whether the government will step in and take control if troubles continue. Stocks for the two mortgage giants met their lowest lows in 15 years this week. The [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

If you’re already subscribed to our RSS feed, you’ve no doubt noticed that we publish mortgage-related news headlines twice daily to the news feed, and these headlines can’t be found anywhere on the site. You may have wondered why that is. Well, the headlines are aggregated from several sources around the web (more to come), [...]

The difference between marginal and average tax rates is a fairly important concept for all tax payers to better understand the way the government gets paid. You’ve probably heard both terms, but maybe never knew what they were. Well, let’s fix that.

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 [...]

This site is run off the popular content management system/blogging platform, WordPress. Thanks to John Crenshaw’s amazing skills with the software for porting it into a real article database (if you know what WordPress is, you’d have no idea this site was run using that software). While he may be good at coding websites, I [...]

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 [...]

Back in the heyday of the mortgage market when shady brokers were selling their socks off (which really wasn’t long ago now), they used the terms “soft” and “hard” credit inquiries when talking about pulling borrower’s credit scores. In fact, confusion about the difference between these types of inquiries was an easy thing for shady [...]

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 [...]