Rates ended last week near 2011 lows achieved March 16 when Japan’s earthquake aftermath and Libya’s revolution were both at highly uncertain stages. Mortgage and Treasury bonds were the safe bet then, and rates dropped as those bond prices rose on buying rallies. Bonds then sold and rates rose as markets shook off Japan and
Pending Home Sales
Stocks are up slightly and bonds are even today after slightly higher consumer inflation and better than expected pending home sales reports are washing each other out. This even-rate, higher-stock mood kicks off a big week of inflation, home price, and employment data that could push rates up. The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, the
Rates are about even today after rising yesterday, and 30yr rates are about 4.875%. Yesterday, December’s New Home Sales showed a 17.5% increase in single-family home sales (way more than 3.1% expected), the Fed said the economy is still struggling, and there was a well-received 5-yr Treasury auction. The Fed announcement should have offset the
Stocks and rates are up as investors look forward to economic improvement in 2011. Rates were a lot higher to begin the trading day, but bonds have since recovered a bit—if the recovery holds, rates will stop rising for the day. Late last week the Chicago ISM (Institute of Supply Managers) stats soared in December
Stocks and rates are up as investors look forward to economic improvement in 2011. Rates were a lot higher to begin the trading day, but bonds have since recovered a bit—if the recovery holds, rates will stop rising for the day. Late last week the Chicago ISM (Institute of Supply Managers) stats soared in December
The National Association of Realtors today reported August pending home sales increased 4.3%, following an increase in July. The August 2010 number is 20.1% below August 2009. The data reflects home sales contracts signed in August and not closings, which normally occur with a lag time of one or two months. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief
How Is Unemployment Calculated? Here in the US, the unemployment rate is estimated by a household survey called the Current Population Survey, conducted monthly by the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed persons by the size of the workforce. An unemployed person is defined as
Can We Learn Anything From Europe’s Problems? With all the talk of European debt problems, it’s useful to know how Europe is structured. The European Union is made up of 27 countries, though it may be 28 soon with Croatia. But only 16 countries use the euro, and those 16 make up the “euro zone”.
The National Association of Realtors said that March pending home sales—as measured by single family homes and condos that went into contract for the month—increased 5.3%. This 21.1% above March 2009 and follows an 8.3% increase in February. NAR’s chief economist acknowledged that the increases in recent months were helped by the federal homebuyer tax
Are You Smarter Than A Congressman? If you are ever feeling down about yourself, or that you’re just not performing at the top of your game and need a boost, you can watch this for 90 seconds and compare yourself to this $174,000 a year employee. And then there’s some development in yet another well-known
First Bank Failure of 2010 The first bank to fail this year is Horizon Bank (WA), with 18 branches that are now being run by Washington Federal Savings and Loan Association, who also assumed all of Horizon’s $1.1 billion of deposits. More On Friday’s Jobs Report As you can imagine, the economists spent the weekend
The National Association of Realtors reported that October Pending Home Sales rose 3.7% from the previous month, and 31.8% year-over-year, a record gain and the highest level since March 2006. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said home sales are experiencing a pendulum swing. “Keep in mind that housing had been underperforming over most of the
My five-year-old nephew wanted to caddy for my brother’s golf game. “You have to count my strokes,” my brother told him. “How much is six plus nine plus eight?” “Five,” answered the nephew. “Okay,” my brother said, “let’s go..” Mortgage banking is a numbers game. Although the illustration above might remind some of their CFO,
The scene from this movie was obviously a horrible period in history, but this take on it cracks me up every time: My uncle used to say, “Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.” Or bigger, for that matter. Speaking of big, the numbers yesterday show that the Fed’s purchases dipped
Just when mortgage brokers thought that it was safe to go back into the water and they were out of the headlines… In a story based on a Columbia University working paper that studied 700,000 loans made by a major national mortgage bank from 2004 to 2008, every loan originated by brokers is performing! Oh,
Well, we haven’t had a well known mortgage company collapse for quite some time, and you can bet that the folks at Taylor, Bean, & Whitaker are hoping that streak continues. Unfortunately they are spending their time in damage control. The latest development is an investigation by HUD after allegedly failing to submit a required
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