East Bay Mortgage News

Practical Advice for the New Homeowner There's nothing more exciting than opening the door to your first new home and knowing that it's entirely yours, that you actually own it! No landlord bothering you about every little thing. Finally you can do whatever you want to do in your new home (includ...

End of Week Update Economic News:  Yesterday's release of the Durable Goods Orders showed positive improvement and raised hopes that the recovery is extending.  The Unemployment Claims number came in surprisingly higher than the expected 460,000 at 496,000 which represented the highest level sinc...

All of us in the real estate industry are acutely aware of the short sale phenomenon which has been prevalent for the past few years and is still going strong. The decline in home values have prompted many home owners to either negotiate a payoff for less than the amount they owe or even worse, t...

Mid Week Brief Economic News:  Yesterday started the beginning of a busy reporting week in the form of the Case-Shiller Home Price Index as well as Consumer Confidence.  Case-Shiller revealed mixed data but did point toward continued price stabilization for the seasonally adjusted data.  Consumer...

It was reported today that there was a dramatic increase in the number of problem banks in the nation. At the end of the 4th Quarter the FDIC had increased the number of troubled banks to 702 up from 552 during the prior quarter.  Many of us are watching the sector very closely as the commercial ...

In case you've been in a cave for about a year you've probably heard that rates are at all time historic lows. If you're a homeowner and have sufficient equity in your home (and sometimes even if you haven't!) you've probably refinanced into an attractive fixed rate loan to take advantage of thes...

Mortgage Update for the beginning of the week Economic News:  A quiet day is in store for the markets today.  No real economic reports are due but as the week rolls on there will be a bevy of reporting which will give us a glimpse on how well the economic recovery is doing.  Here is what is in th...

If you've read any of my previous posts, it's obvious my passion lies in organizing and streamlining pretty much everything to make life more manageable.  One thing I see again and again is an overflowing inbox.  It's fairly simple to devise a process for taming your inbox. Here are some suggesti...

End of Week Briefing Economic News:  On top of the FED announcement to raise the Discount Rate (discussed here & here) we were greeted yesterday with the Producer Price Index (PPI) & Jobless Numbers.  The PPI came in much higher than anticipated signaling inflationary areas in certain segments of...

As I briefly discussed earlier today the Federal Reserve increased the Discount Rate by .25% after the market close yesterday.  The full press release is available here.  As mentioned in the statement, the FED "anticipates that economic conditions are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of...