It’s Going To Be A Busy Week
It’s going to be an extremely busy week as far as small reports go.   Many of the ‘lagging indicator’ reports have been showing a slowing economy.  IF things come out this week showing more weak numbers or worse (or should I say better???) record lows, mortgage rates will continue […]

Last week was a busy economic news week. In short, mortgage rates had a good week.
Did you ever read ‘Choose Your Own Adventure‘ books in school growing up? Okay, two ways to proceed with this weekly mortgage update. Only because I love to talk about the market, I often talk a lot […]

Do you ever wonder how our real estate market is here in Des Moines? Unfortunately, we spend a lot of time listening to how rough things are in other cities around the country, but too often we don’t really consider what our real estate climate is like.

I’m a fan of having as much information available […]

It’s official, it’s Fed Day. Today (Wednesday, June 25th), the Fed will be making their statement this afternoon at 2:00ET. It’s a big deal for the mortgage market, but not for the reasons you might think it matters.
What Does The Fed Funds Rate Effect?

Credit Card Rates
Auto Loans (in some instances)
Home Equity Lines of […]

I live in a world of acronyms.
Seriously - when we start in the business, they should have a mortgage class related to just understanding all of the acronyms.
With that said, I’m going to start explaining some of the frequently used acronyms. Hopefully if you’re working with a mortgage professional, you’ll never hear these. […]

I’m a big believer in the law of attraction. It’s no secret (no pun intended…sort of). First, I want to say that I don’t really care what your faith is, just as long as you have some.
Anyway - Every morning I get a message from ‘The Universe’. It’s a free service offered […]

Roll of the dice.
That’s what I say. This week’s big news is the Fed announcement on Wednesday. There’s a lot of speculation on what the Fed’s move will be. Some say that with all of the cutting in the past few months that inflation will be a big issue. Others feel […]

Here’s a Short and Sweet Recap of Last Week’s Mortgage Rate Movement

Often when the stock market bites the dust, mortgage rates improve.  The basic explaination is money moves from equities (stocks) to bonds (specifically, mortgage backed securties in this case).  The higher the value of a mortgage backed security, the lower the interest rate.  Make […]

Okay, I finally pulled my head out of… well - you know. Today, I was going through my ‘link backs’ to my blog (people that show link-love and link to your website) and found that my friend Dru Bloomfield that authors the great real estate blog ‘At Home in Scottsdale‘ had tagged me. […]

The Announcement
On July 14th, 2008 FHA will be changing a few things with private mortgage insurance (PMI). Just like Fannie Mae made mortgages higher cost, FHA is now following suit. Just in a slightly different way. Once again, they are also placing a heavy focus on credit scores and charging more for […]