Eleanor, I'm particularly interested in the conforming loan limit change. It could mean huge things for my market.

Eleanor - kudos to you for keeping up with the regulatory side of things.  In an industry that is so regulated, knowing what's going on is more important than all the marketing in the world (IMHO).

Eleanor, You are my hero. These details bore me to tears... I am glad we have wonderful people like yourself that help decipher it!

Ed Nailor - Charlotte home loans

Eleanor, did you catch the 60 minutes report on the mortgage crisis and how it intersects with the overall economy?

Joey!  Yes I did!  I thought that the timelineoffered by the AP on exactly what's happened in the last year is interesting.  The real fallout - as mentioned will come as folks see their pension and mutual funds lose value.  My dad was one of the first people in America to sell Mortgage Backed Securites in the 1970s.  I have those tombstones in my office... the largest purchaser of MBS (mortgages) at that time here in NC was the NC Teachers Pension Fund.  They are still one of the largest non-bank purchasers!  So!  As I told folks last year - we are not only the bad guys for making profit on the poor client who can no longer make their payment - we also messed up a LIBRARIANS PENSION! 

Tomorrow will be the big day.  Durable goods will tell us if the mfg industries are having a slow down which could create job cuts... Consumer Confidence will tell us if the Government Stimulus package is getting into the Psyche of the consumer... and I thought the comments by Duncan (economist at MBA) regarding Servicing Sector fed right back to what 60 minutes said.  More and More people are taking 2nd and 3rd jobs to try and make SOME kind of payment.  Many of those part time jobs are in retail and the service industry.  If we are losing THOSE jobs - again it's a scary place.

Historically - we need the Fed Funds rate to match the 2 yr.  That means Fed Funds rate should be @2.3.  We are at 3.5. 

Eleanor,

See?  This is why I subscribe to your blog.  Your Dad is proud, I'm sure!

Mike in Tucson

Mike - Yeah, he still follows this stuff too. He says Bernanke has not been very effective at taking the info he's given by those 200 economist and actually doing very much with it.  "He keeps looking in the rear view mirror!"  That's not FOREcasting IMHO

Great post.

Seems the Fed is cutting rates every month! 

See my post on real estate market forecasts "The number one question in San Diego real estate"

Bob

San Diego real estate blog 

Eleanor,

I just came back to catch up on the commentary.  This cartoon is one of my favorites.

Mike in Tucson

Mike - Howdy!  Looks like the 3rd wave of the bubble is on it's way. Interesting...

Bob - I had not seen your post on San Diego - thanks for sharing... I'm assuming you are aware of this... but Condos are not included in the New Homes Inventory numbers.  I would think this would have some impact on the San Diego numbers as well.  Most of the cities in NC (Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Wilmington) have large condo projects going on in the "downtown" areas.  Thanks for stopping by!