Des Moines Iowa Real Estate Market Watch – Week of December 7th, 2008

December 17, 2008

What’s The Real Estate Market Doing? 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 […]

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Understanding the Fed Statement – December 16th, 2008 Edition

December 16, 2008

The Federal Open Market Committee voted to cut the Fed Funds Rate by at least three-quarters percent today.  The benchmark rate now rests in a range of 0.000-0.250 percent (yea, that hasn’t happened before). In its press release, the FOMC identified three key economic sectors in which activity has weakened since October. The FOMC noted that: The U.S. […]

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The Fed Cuts to 0% and Mortgage Rates Go Wild!

December 16, 2008

It’s official. The Fed has officially cut the Fed Funds Rate to .25% (actually a ‘target range between 0% and .25%).  This is BIG news. No, mortgage rates are not zero percent.  However, intially (this happened half an hour ago) mortgage rates look like they could be poised for a great deal!  I’m not in […]

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Fed Cut May Lead to Higher Mortgage Rates

December 16, 2008

The Federal Open Market Committee (that’s Bernanke’s crew) ends its 2-day meeting at 2:15 P.M. ET today. It’s widely expected that the FOMC will reduce the Fed Funds Rate by a half-percent to 0.500 percent. Fed Funds Rate cuts are meant to stimulate the economy by lowering borrowing costs for businesses and consumers. Interest rates […]

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Mortgage Market and Rate Forecast – Week of December 15th, 2008

December 16, 2008

The Fed Is Meeting! It is widely expected that the Fed will be cutting the Fed Funds Rate (FFR) at Tuesday’s meeting. Remember, just because the Fed Funds Rate is going down doesn’t equate to lower mortgage rates.  In fact, more often than not, this translates into higher rates on an account of fears of […]

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Mortgage Market and Rate Recap – Week of December 8th

December 14, 2008

Things Are As They Seem Last week was quite predictible.  Seriously, it was. Look at the calendar below and you’ll see most economic reports came in as expected.  The predictions are often ugly, and the results come in matching. Now remember, mortgage rates react to this news, but they set the ‘expectations’ where the experts […]

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Des Moines Iowa Real Estate Market Watch – Week of December 1st, 2008

December 9, 2008

What’s The Real Estate Market Doing? 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 […]

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Unemployment Rises in November. The Worst Loss Since 1973!

December 8, 2008

One Half of a Million Jobs Yes, in November the US lost 533,000 jobs.  This was the largest increase of unemployment since 1973.  Probably not a huge shocker overall, and that’s likely why mortgage rates didn’t move a whole lot on Friday.  See, normally the uglier the news, the better mortgage rates do.  However, the […]

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Mortgage Market and Rate Forecast – Week of December 8th, 2008

December 8, 2008

What To Watch This Week? There is a lot happening in the news with the US Treasury and Fed.  The auto industry is looking for a large sum of money and there’s talk about stimulating the housing market by bringing interest rates down as low as 4.5% (this would only be for purchases.. look for […]

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Mortgage Market and Rate Recap – Week of December 1st

December 8, 2008

More Americans Are Loosing Their Jobs On Friday, the Jobs Report reflected a loss of 533,000 jobs in November.  This is literally the most jobs that have been lost in 35 years.  The overall unemployment rate (nationally) rose to 6.7%. Normally, this would have lead to an improvement with mortgage rates.  However, expectations were very […]

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