ARCHIVED BLOG POSTS
2011
Pending Home Sales Slip In July; Creates Buyer Opportunity After 3 straight months of gains, the Pending Home Sales Index slipped 1 percent in July. The monthly report is published by the National Association of REALTORS® and measures the number of home under contract to sell nationwide. The Pend...
08/31/2011
Mortgage Rates Bounce Off All-Time Lows; The Start Of A Trend? Low mortgage rates are terrific — if you can get them. One week after posting its lowest mortgage rate in 50 years, Freddie Mac reports that the 30-year fixed rate mortgage rose by an average of 7 basis points nationwide this week to ...
08/29/2011
Mortgage Rates Don’t Move With The Fed Funds Rate Last week, at its 5th scheduled meeting of the year, the Federal Open Market Committee voted to leave the Fed Funds Rate in its target range near zero percent. The Fed Funds Rate has been near zero percent since December 2008 and, in its official ...
08/22/2011
Housing Starts Tick Lower; Building Permits Tick Higher Single-Family Housing Starts fell to a seasonally-adjusted, annualized 425,000 units in July, according to the Census Bureau. A “Housing Start” is defined as a home on which construction has started and ground has broken. Furthermore, Single...
08/19/2011
Strong Job Growth In July Trumped By Credit Downgrade More Americans are getting back to work. The latest Non-Farm Payrolls survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that 117,000 net new jobs were created in July, thumping analyst estimates and surprising Wall Street investors. In addition...
08/12/2011
Mortgage Rates Drop After U.S. Credit Downgrade Mortgage rates continue drifting downward, despite — or because of — a ratings downgrade on long-term U.S. government debt. Standard & Poors issued a single-notch downgrade after Friday’s market close, from AAA to AA+. Of the roughly $9.4 billion in...
08/10/2011
Closing At The Start Of September? Watch Out For Labor Day. Home sales have heated up, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. More homes are going under contract this summer than went during the winter or spring seasons. Many of these homes are scheduled for late-August/early-Septemb...
08/08/2011
