The other day I was complaining to a friend about the fact that her dog had two beds whilst my dog had none. (After all, for millions of years dogs survived without beds, right?) She answered that she had heard that, under a plan being considered by the Administration, any dogs that lied about their
Durable Goods
Last Friday was the first day of spring. Congratulations, you made it through winter – now if only your savings had… Conforming To $729k? What is the word on when the conventional $729,250 will be rolled out? Hah! Call me “out of the loop”, but I have none. There are reports that big banks’ retail
OK, I am a sucker for the etrade baby ads, along the right side of the site. Tracking TARP Money Where does your favorite bank stand in receiving TARP money? Well, here you go. Chase Exits Warehouse Business Having only 8 clients left, Chase bailed on their warehouse business. “After consideration and review, the Correspondent
AmTrust Bank In Trouble The Office of Thrift Supervision issued simultaneous cease and desist orders against AmTrust Financial Corp. and unit AmTrust Bank. The orders require the holding company and its nondepository subsidiaries to: Seek prior approval from the OTS before incurring, issuing, renewing or rolling over any debt, increasing any lines of credit or
The big event of the week happens today when the FOMC announces their policy decision at 11:15AM PST, 2:15PM EST. The markets have priced in a 50-basis point cut, but many are calling for a 75-basis point cut. Once again, it raises the question about whether or not it will do anything to help mortgages,
Do you think that licensing is not an option for a loan originator? Think again, and view this. This SAFE licensing became part of HR 3221, signed by President Bush at the end of July. Remember that it is federal law, but states have some time to pass state legislation to license originators. (As best
(If you only want to read good news, skip to another paragraph.) It appears that, as the summer winds down, mortgage agents and brokers are taking a look at their pipelines. It seems that at many originators, a strong a June & July has been followed by a slightly weak August, funding-wise. Locks are generally
Yields on 10-year Treasury bonds closed above 4% today for the first time since January. In a broader perspective, this is largely a bet that the Fed will hike rates soon. The Fed next meets on June 24 & 25, and markets are looking for signs of what the Fed will do with rates, and
I made a mistake today. The “recency effect” says that a person best remembers items from last on a list. One offshoot is that people also tends to remember the last song that they heard on the radio before turning it off, and has that song running through their head all day. For me this
Many prognosticators (who are different than procrastinators) feel that money managers created the current turmoil by failing to take risk seriously, allowing borrowers with lower credit to borrow money nearly as cheaply as A-paper borrowers. And they feel that it is not the taxpayer’s duty to bail them out. If your 16-yr old recklessly loses
Rates/Commentary, for the week of June 20, 2005. Since I didn’t do a report last week, I’ll just cover both weeks so you’ve got what you need to keep your clients informed. 30-yr and ARM rates are up .125% in the past 10 trading days. Rates were actually up about .25% last week, but the
Rates and commentary below are as of October 27, 2003. This is a big economic week, starting today with good news for Realtors about home sales. Existing home sales were up 3.6% in September, setting a new monthly record. The second-to-last Fed meeting of 2003 is tomorrow, and they are expected to leave rates unchanged.