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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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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%)…

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…

The Fed doesn’t want long-term mortgage interest rates to rise. At least, that’s the conclusion we draw from a blog post they released, Monday. The post goes to great lengths to draw the conclusion that their recent rate hike shouldn’t affect long-term mortgage rates. To be sure, it will affect short term, adjustable rate mortgages, but their…

There are many reasons to think that the housing market is still in great shape; that it can easily withstand the next year’s worth of rate hikes. And the next few months are still likely a great time to buy, seasonally, even if the weather isn’t particularly wintery this year. But if you’re not in…

There are many reasons to think that the housing market is still in great shape; that it can easily withstand the next year’s worth of rate hikes. And the next few months are still likely a great time to buy, seasonally, even if the weather isn’t particularly wintery this year. But if you’re not in…