New Housing Starts Drop to Ten-Month Low
Housing recovery
Real Estate – Could This Be The End of The Recovery?
Have you ever noticed in the last couple of years on the majority of economic reports they usually start with a phrase like unexpected, surprisingly, or stunning? Nothing wrong with these adjectives, except for the fact that they always seem to be used on reports that are negative to the economy and naturally ones that the economist predicted would be the exact opposite.
Well, today’s report on new housing starts is no exception. In both the Reuters and the MSN versions, the story starts off using the term unexpectedly fell. Yes, today’s report by the US Commerce Department on new housing starts, show that they dropped to a 10 month low of a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 836,000 units. What effect, if any, will this have on our current housing recovery?
Housing Market – Interest Rates – Economy
Housing Market – Interest Rates – Economy
Peter Schiff’s views on the current state of the economy.
The U.S. dollar has lost significant value over the past decade.
Home Mortgage Rates
real estate news
Home Mortgage Rates
There is some good real estate news out there, you just have to look hard to find it. Freddie Mac, that used to be quasi-government entity, that’s now 100% government owned, and loaded with what many believe are trillions in worthless mortgages, recently released a report showing that home mortgage interest rates have been steadily declining. Read more 
Low Rates – Homebuyers Tax Credit
homebuyers tax credit
The Fed did what they set out to do – purchasing $1.25 Trillion in Mortgage Backed Securities, and succeeding in their plan to lower home loan rates and help stabilize the housing sector. And even though they stretched out the length of the program slightly – in order to soften the impact of the end of the program – the training wheels are now off, the safety net is gone, and home loan rates have already moved higher. In fact – as the Fed will now gradually become a seller of their massive holdings of Mortgage Backed Securities – rates are very likely to continue to move higher still.
Home Mortgage Rates to Increase
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home mortgage interest rates
Early last year, the Federal Reserve began purchasing mortgage-backed securities, which helped maintain low interest rates for consumers. However, the Fed’s purchase program ended in March, and some analysts forecast interest rates to increase throughout the rest of the year. One financial publishing company predicts that rates likely will rise to 5.5 percent by mid-2010 and close the year at 5.75 percent to 6 percent. The CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) projects rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages to average 5.6 percent this year.
Sacramento real estate lawyers
Fed Leaves Key Interest Rate Unchanged
brokerforyou.com Bob Schwartz
The Federal Reserve announced it will maintain its target for the federal funds rate in the 0 percent to 0.25 percent range, and expects economic conditions to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period of time. “Information … suggests that economic activity continues to strengthen and that deterioration in the labor market is abating,” the Fed said in a prepared statement. Read more
Is A Big Mortgage Rate Increase Coming in 2010?
Housing market
Wall Street insiders estimate the Fed’s $300 billion in Treasury purchases helped push down rates on those securities by half a percentage point and its purchasing of mortgage-backed securities (it will eventually buy $1.25 trillion) is pushing down rates on those securities by a full percentage point.
US government bought over 90% of all mortgages last 3-4 months
The Federal Reserve No Policy Change May Be Cause for Concern
housing market & interest rates
There were no real changes to the Federal Reserve’s policy statement yesterday. I have observed for years that Fed announcement days have been treated as more important than the sum total of all company earnings statements. Why is that? Perhaps because the Fed’s economic manipulations have been more important than the market’s fundamentals since the inception of the Greenspan era. Read more
Fed Spends $750 billion to Lower Mortgage Rates
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) informed the public this week that it will expand its dominating position in the mortgage-backed security (MBS) market, throwing an additional $750 billion there. Markets rallied on the news with Treasuries shedding up to 51 basis points.
Economists were up in arms about the Fed's measures. Stephen Stanley of RBS Greenwich Capital said via the WSJ blogs:
Bloomberg summed it up in the lead of their coverage:
By committing to buy Treasuries and double his purchases of mortgage debt, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke signaled his determination to avoid a repeat of the Great Depression and his willingness to pump as much cash into the economy as needed to end the current crisis. San Diego real estate
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San Diego Real Estate & Mortgage Views
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