Tara Talbot's (taratalbot) Blog

There is no question that Fanniemae and Freddiemac are broken.  To spite billions in losses, their investors are still being paid dividends at the expense of the american tax payer. The restructuring of the two mortgage giants was supposed to be announced today by the Obama administration.  Howev...

Newly elected Rand Paul of Kentucky is proposing legislation to "defund" HUD (Husing and Urban Development).  What on earth is he thinking?  If there is no HUD, there will be no FHA loans.  If there are no FHA insured loans, where will the funds come for affordable housing? There may be waste in ...

After watching the President deliver his State of the Union address, I was very disappointed he said nothing about housing.  Although the December housing data was favorable, making the current inventory 2% less, this is far cry from lifting housing out of the slump. Unemployment is still high.  ...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was established last year to revamp financial regulation on products such as home mortgages, title loans, credit cards and pay day loans.  This is all headed up by Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor.  Even though the bureau was fought by the powerfu...

The Federal open market committee or FOMC will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.  This is the first of eight of such meetings for 2011.   Even though the industry feels that the FOMC will not move to raise interest rates overall, mortgage rates may be impacted by what the FOMC decides. ...

Existing home sales surged 12 percent in December, giving a strong closing for the 2010 housing market.  It is the third straight month of home resale improvement nation wide. Sales volume is now as high as it has been since May 2010, just after the federal home buyer tax credit's expiration.  Th...

The good news is that mortgage rates have gone down since the first of the year and have crept down a little today. Retail sales data was good for December at 1,5 billion,however, it did not hit the two billion dollar mark that was expected. This is good news for housing, at least in the short ru...