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economic recovery: Is HAMP really helping? - 03/16/10 03:40 PM
Here is an interesting way to look at the long term success potential for the White House's Making Home Affordable Modification Program. 
I previously covered the problems associated with the actual number of permanent modifications, and the frustration faced by those hoping for such a modification due to the fact that over 1.3 Million have applied and fewer than 120,000 have been granted a permanent mod.  This in itself is not so bad because there are many more in a trial status of their modification, but I just cannot get past the fact that over 57% of the permanent modifications were granted … (8 comments)

economic recovery: Employment/Labor recovery expected to be slow - Really?! - 01/08/10 07:09 PM
Today the Fed released the notes from their most recent meeting.  I find the most telling statistic found in their report to be the decline in consumer credit usage.  "Consumer credit decreased at an annual rate of 8-1/2 percent in November. Revolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 18-1/2 percent, and non-revolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 3 percent." - http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g19/Current/ This is the single largest drop in consumer credit spending since 1943, when the Fed first started keeping these statistics! 

We are told that economic recovery is dependent on consumer spending in America which is why … (10 comments)

economic recovery: How real is our Economic Recovery? - 01/06/10 07:55 PM
 The mainstream media have been pushing quite the positive agenda lately, and I just don't understand why no one is questioning these reports.  The recent news releases keep painting a picture of economic recovery.  Jobs Reports are not as bad as forecast, retail sales are up year over year, blah, blah, blah.  The situation is far from any kind of recovery.
 One of my recent posts exposed the false positives of the holiday retail spending reports.  MasterCard Spending Pulse, a widely used measure of retail activity ended the year with a report that Holiday sales (the period from Black Friday through … (2 comments)

economic recovery: What really happened with Retail Sales for the holidays this year - 01/05/10 04:59 PM
One Week ago, MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse (a report intended to show the "big picture" for American retailers) reported an increase in retail sales for the period from "Black Friday" to Christmas Eve, December 24th.  The Stock Market took the news & ran with another positive day for the Dow Jones, S & P, etc.  Correspondingly, we saw a drop in pricing for Mortgage Backed Securities, and an associated rise in Mortgage Rates.  Today, January 5th, I see an article in Market Watch (an online arm of the Wall Street Journal) with analysts stating "Retailers May Win the Game of Chicken" where the sentiment is … (2 comments)

 
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Ron Brown FHA & VA Home Loan Specialist

Puyallup, WA

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Pinnacle Mortgage Planning

Address: 33915 1st Way S. , suite 100, Federal Way, WA, 98003

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The views, and opinions expressed here represent the personal views, and opinions of Ron Brown. They are not necessarily the views of First Mortgage Company, and should not be construed as being so. They are for informative purposes only, and any persons reading them are encouraged to research there current relevance, and timeliness before taking any action.


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