The premise of The Big Short, per Wikipedia, is “when four outsiders saw what the big banks, media and government refused to, the global collapse of the economy, they had an idea: The Big Short.” The comedy stars Brad Pitt, and is getting knockout reviews (87% on Rotten Tomatoes; 81% on Metacritic), but not everyone…

Surely, for most Americans, the idea of lying on any official form, let alone something as significant as a mortgage application, would be nearly unthinkable. It probably wouldn’t even cross your mind. But, as this article from South Florida indicates, it happens more frequently than one might think. If the thought does ever cross your mind, discard…

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,…

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…

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…

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…