Blog

The Fed just announced the first increase in the “benchmark target rate” for the first time since 2006. The problem for most of us mortals is, not only do we not know what the Fed is, nor what the target rate is, but we really don’t know what this means or why it matters. Nevertheless,…

The Fed just announced the first increase in the “benchmark target rate” for the first time since 2006. The problem for most of us mortals is, not only do we not know what the Fed is, nor what the target rate is, but we really don’t know what this means or why it matters. Nevertheless,…

Monday, USA Today carried an interesting piece, touching on the likely impacts of a Fed rate increase. The article focused on the auto and home industries in particular, and for their housing analysis, they came to the same conclusion that everyone else has for several months: a rate hike is unlikely to affect the market. But…

We’ve written several times over the last few months about the housing market finally being, if not fully, than at least very nearly fully recovered. Of course, that’s good for the housing market. But Bloomberg wrote yesterday about The End of The Housing Hangover. The phrasing is both important and pretty good. Because in many ways,…

In a fairly obscure piece of mortgage related news, the EU’s European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has proposed relaxing their current two-day liquidation period, at least when dealing with U.S. mortgage-backed securities (the U.S. has a one-day period). The change of one day may seem particularly obtuse to those not immersed in banking lore, but it…

There are a lot of regulations in the mortgage industry. Mostly, you don’t need to understand them — that’s why you have a loan officer and work with a professional institution. Nevertheless, you’ll get exposed to a bunch of acronyms, and it’s always frustrating when you don’t understand what people are talking about. Devon Thorsby,…

A couple of days ago, we shared the insights of one home buyer who extolled the virtues of shopping for a home in the depths of winter. But it isn’t all just about the buyer. U.S. News & World Report wrote about the advantages of selling in the winter from an investor’s perspective. Some of their reasoning…

There have been a number of articles over the last weeks indicating that the housing market is strong enough to continue growth, even in the face of a Fed rate hike. On top of that, Fitch released their ratings report today, backing up that conclusion. But in the face of that, 35% of major U.S. housing markets have…

Shopping for a house in the middle of winter isn’t for everyone — and neither is selling a house in the middle of winter. And that’s exactly why, if done correctly, this can be the perfect time to buy. Holden Lewis describes his lessons-learned from starting shopping for a home in December, in Toledo, Ohio. Of course,…

This is always a tricky topic, and we’ve even seen a series of articles recently suggesting that one should never pay off their mortgage — that having a large, long mortgage is nearly always the most sound financial decision. That seems a bit of a stretch, but Kristin McFarland of The Smarter Investor asks a…