Boom! Goes The Housing Market
While almost all data have pointed to a good 2016 in terms of the housing market, few sources are indicating that anything outrageous is going to happen. However, Brian O’Connell has written a rather extensive piece for The Street. He makes some predictions with which we at least marginally disagree, primarily around long-term mortgage interest rates; however,…
Read MoreHousehold Things To Do in January
As Winter finally begins to settle in, and as the holidays wind down, it’s easy to settle into the daily routine — get the kids ready, go to work, go to the gym, buy groceries, make dinner, sleep, repeat. Not much different here on January 6th than it was on December 6th. Don’t let that…
Read MoreHousehold Things To Do in January
As Winter finally begins to settle in, and as the holidays wind down, it’s easy to settle into the daily routine — get the kids ready, go to work, go to the gym, buy groceries, make dinner, sleep, repeat. Not much different here on January 6th than it was on December 6th. Don’t let that…
Read MoreDoes U.S. Housing Have An Affordability Problem?
Over the past year, it’s become quite clear that the housing market has recovered. However, does it really feel like the economy as a whole has? For most of us, probably not, and that’s largely because it hasn’t. Unemployment is down, but that’s because of the funny way the U.S. measures unemployment — there are…
Read MoreTime to Look at Removing PMI
If you’re still paying PMI on your mortgage, now may be a great time to look at refinancing and fixing that. According to Moody’s Analytics, single-family home prices are now above their previous-decade peak in more than 40% of markets. Nationally, prices are still down about 12% overall, but averages aren’t really useful — you need to…
Read MoreHappy New Year 2016!
As 2015 draws to a close, hour by hour, I find myself looking back on 2015. To be sure, it’s been a year where tragedy and bad news has prevailed more than most. But there were also plenty of good, positive, inspiring news stories this year, and as we head into 2016, I think it’s…
Read MoreChina to Face Economic Crisis in 2016
JP Smith, who accurately forecast the 1998 Russian stock market crash, says China is in for a bust as bad as the ’08 U.S. mortgage bust, next year. TheStreet.com provides detailed coverage, on the reasoning, state of the Yuan (the Chinese currency), and other market factors. The reason that this is interesting to us is that, if…
Read MoreLooking Into The Crystal Ball
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I generally scoff at predictions. Few people are as accurate as Cassandra. Still, with the proper use of data, some predictions can be better than others. Mitch Lipka recently interviewed Svenja Gudell, the new Chief Economist at Zillow. There are no deep, earth-shattering predictions, but…
Read MoreMillennials Messing Up The Market
To be fair, the causality might not work in this direction, but if you want to know if you’re in a good market to buy, all you have to do is look at whether Millennials are moving to your town or not. According to RealtyTrac, buying is still more cost effective than renting in the majority (68%)…
Read MoreCNBC Agrees — Fed Move Won’t Affect Mortgages
We reported yesterday on a blog post that the Federal Reserve put out, arguing their case that the rate hike shouldn’t have any impact on long-term, fixed rate mortgages. It turns out, they’re not the only ones who think that. CNBC wrote a similar piece last week. The main difference is, their article is a…
Read More




