Don Grimes's (grimesd) Blog

Last week’s economic news was dominated by the first address by the new Fed chairperson, Janet Yellen. Tuesday’s news included the Jobs Openings report for December 2013, which matched November’s reading of 4.0 million jobs available. This information was taken from a gauge of competition for av...

Residential Construction Spending Up Last week’s mortgage and housing-related reports began with Construction Spending for December, with a reading of 0.10 percent or a seasonally adjusted $930.5 billion. December’s reading fell short of an expected increase of 0.40 percent. Spending for private ...

Last week brought mixed news; while the Department of Commerce reported a dip in new home sales, mortgage rates also fell. The Federal Reserve’s FOMC statement revealed that quantitative easing would be further reduced by an additional $10 billion monthly. New Home Sales: Y-O-Y Reading Best Sinc...

Last week was an action-packed week for economic news, and all of it was packed into Thursday: Weekly Jobless claims came in at 326,000 which was lower than the expected 330,000 new claims. This week’s claims were higher than the prior week’s 325,000 new jobless claims filed. The NAR released its...

Welcome news arrived last week as lower mortgage rates and a higher number of housing starts were reported. Other economic news was mixed: The Federal Reserve released its Beige Book Report released last Tuesday indicated modest economic growth throughout the 12 Federal Reserve districts. Analys...

The first post-holiday week of 2014 brought mixed economic and housing-related news. CoreLogic reported via its Housing Market Index that November home prices grew by 11.80 percent year-over-year. This was just shy of October’s year-over-year reading of 11.90 percent. As with Case-Shiller’s rece...

The last week of 2013 brought relatively good news in view of the economic roller coaster rides caused by legislative impasse. A brief shutdown of federal government agencies, and nail-biting suspense over if and when the FOMC of the Federal Reserve would taper its quantitative easing program. L...

When you already have a home, you may be interested in determining if a refinance is a good option. You will not have to worry about restrictions on down payments or some of the problems that can occur with a down payment. However, if you are considering purchasing a home in or the surrounding c...

According to December’s NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, home builder confidence rose by four points to a reading of 58; this surpassed the consensus of 56 and November’s reading of 56. November Housing Starts were released Wednesday and also exceeded expectations and the prior month’s rea...

Mortgage Debt Rises For First Time Since Recession Last week was relatively quiet concerning scheduled housing-related news, but the Federal Reserve’s financial accounts report, released on Monday, indicated that mortgage debt in the U.S. had increased for the first time since the first quarter (...