Last week the Dow crossed a key psychological barrier of 9000 for the first time since January, and sentiment seems to be positive. But earnings are perhaps not all that they seem. Below is what former labor secretary Robert Reich had to say about it. The ‘real economy’ part is especially notable seeing as how [...]

Forthcoming Appraisal Regulations At this point most loan agents, realtors, and brokers have heard of the HVCC (Home Valuation Code of Conduct), an agreement worked out between the state of New York and Fannie & Freddie (OFHEO). Originally slated to take affect January 1, 2009, the Appraisal Code’s implementation has been pushed back to (probably) [...]

US stock markets shot up today as investors hunted for bargains and placed their bets on the Fed Funds Rate being cut by 50 basis points to 1% tomorrow. The last time the Fed Funds Rate was at 1% was from June 2003 to June 2004, and then Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has been widely [...]

For the second week in a row, The Onion has been strong with the financial humor:

The credit crunch continues to take a toll on markets. The Dow was down 678 points today, to close at 8579, which is down 39.4% from a record high set one year ago today. So bad, it’s ridiculous. The best thing to do (and only thing for now) is laugh it off with this little [...]

The traditional definition of a bear market is a 20% market decline. It’s hard to peg an official bear market because maybe one index drops that much but the others don’t. Or maybe things rebound quickly after a drop. But as of today it seems to be real: Since their peaks in October 2007, the [...]

Conforming rates (on loans up to $417k) are down about .25% and Jumbo rates (on loans above $417k) are also down about .25% this morning following the Fed’s surprise intermeeting rate cuts. They came on the back of non-US equity markets dropping 5-10% yesterday and the Dow opening down 464 points. The Fed cut both [...]

Fixed and ARM rates are up about .125% this week, which isn’t bad after continued stock strength pulled money from bonds – and when bond prices drop in a sell-off, yields (or rates) rise. This is a huge week for markets, with quarterly earnings reports due from 106 S&P 500 companies and 12 of 30 [...]

Rates/commentary for the week of January 19, 2004. Tuesday should kick off with rates about .125% higher than last Friday, but still hovering around all-time record lows set last May. The main reason for a higher open is from Treasury and mortgage-backed bond investors selling to take profits after a week-long rally and before the [...]