Many of the most entertaining emails I receive from readers will never pop up in the reader mailbag. Lengthy personal attacks (including threatening statements about my children and my wife). Offers for intimate “meetups.” Long descriptions of horribly dysfunctional marriages. People begging me to hire them (The Simple Dollar…
The MBA reports: Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey The Refinance Index decreased 7.3 percent from the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 1.2 percent from one week earlier. … The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.75 percent from 4.82…
Note: This index is a leading indicator for Commercial Real Estate (CRE) investment. Reuters reports that the American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Billings Index declined to 45.8 in May from 48.5 in April. Any reading below 50 indicates contraction. The ABI press release is not online yet. Click on graph…
Earlier I posted a graph showing the relationship of existing home months-of-supply to house prices. When months-of-supply is below 6 months, house prices are typically rising – and above 6 months-of-supply, house prices are usually falling (this isn’t perfect, but it is a general guide). So how high will months-of-supply…
Last week I mentioned the potential law change in California: Under California law, purchase money loans are non-recourse. However once a homeowner refinances, the entire mortgage is recourse … that is probably going to change … Note: This bill, if passed, will take effect June 1, 2011. Here is the…
CR Note: As mentioned in the Look Ahead post, the consensus for existing home sales (to be announced Tuesday) is for an increase to 6.2 million sales in May (SAAR), from 5.77 million in April (SAAR). For new home sales, the consensus is for a sharp decrease in sales…
What’s inside? Here are five word summaries of the questions dealt with in today’s Reader Mailbag. Click on the number to hop down to the question. 1. Blogging as steady income? 2. Selling rental for debt repayment 3. Drowning in student loan debt 4. Fed up with overreaching charity…
From Reuters: China’s Yuan Jumps After Flexibility Pledge The yuan closed at 6.7976 against the dollar, up 0.42 percent from Friday’s close … The yuan has been essentially pegged at 6.83 since July 2008. On Saturday China announced more exchange rate flexibility … here are some excerpts from the statement…
Every Sunday, The Simple Dollar reviews a personal finance book or other book of interest. A while back, I wrote an article describing an utterly painful meeting my wife and I had with a financial advisor. That meeting was painful. It simply accelerated my souring on financial advisors, based…
Binyamin Appelbaum writes in the New York Times: Cost of Seizing Fannie and Freddie Surges for Taxpayers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac took over a foreclosed home roughly every 90 seconds during the first three months of the year. They owned 163,828 houses at the end of March, a virtual…