Last week’s boost for the Dow took rates up a little bit. Still, everything is in the 6’s to rates can’t be much to blame for our fence riding buyers. I have visited quite a few open houses lately and the news is good. There are many lookers who want to buy but just need to sell their current home to upgrade. Part of this week’s bill that is in the works includes a tax credit for first time home buyers. Hopefully, this will help the start the “trickle-up” effect.
Along those lines, the big news this week is that the House passed a bill that will essentially open a line of credit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac if they need it. The media wants to make it sound like us taxpayers are losing $25 Billion but that is not the case. It is just a backstop that may or may not be used. The government also said that, if needed, they will buy stock to keep both entities solvent. Below is a decent little article about it. Today it goes to the senate and should be signed by the President next week.
On another note, I saw an interesting article that says the US is finally having enough babies to sustain itself; the first year since 1971 we have done that. I can believe it based on my world. It seems that so many of our friends are having 3 and 4 children now and with only two, we have the one of the smallest families around.
Did you know that many European countries and Japan are dying? It’s true. I know we like to be so myopic and think that our troubles are worse than every other country in the world but that is so far from the truth. Many countries are soon going to have way too many elderly and not enough workers to generate taxes to pay for them.
And finally…. My youngest one, Abby, will be off to 5 day a week school in early August. My wife, Danielle, is looking for something to do during the day and we wanted to see if you knew of anyone looking for a part time position to be filled. Danielle has been out of the corporate world since Ava was born in 2002 but is looking forward to getting back to doing something. Please let me know of any opportunities you know about from being someone’s assistant to whatever else needs to be done during the day.
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!!
dz
http://mobile.reuters.com/mobile/m/FullArticle/CTOP/ntopNews_uUSN2141192720080723 http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-19-fertility_N.htm
Comments(0)