What is a VOD?

July 15, 2008

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.  Even worse, mortgage professionals use these acronyms in conversation with clients.  I feel horrible for those individuals because it’s like we’re speaking a different language, right? […]

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Mortgage Rate and Market Watch – Week of July 14th

July 14, 2008

A Few Good Reports. As you can see on the calendar below, there’s a lot going on in the economic news market. If I had to pick two big reports to watch most closely this week, I’d say: Core Consumer Price Index (CPI).  CPI is the Fed’s favorite index to measure inflation.  Everyone’s been expecting […]

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Fed Opens The Discount Window to Freddie and Fannie

July 14, 2008

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson made a couple of extremely big announcements this afternoon. The Fed will open the Discount Window to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for borrowing.  This is the same Discount Window that was opened to Bear Sterns just a few months ago.  This is intended to make the two GSE’s more liquid.  […]

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Mortgage Rate and Market Recap

July 13, 2008

Spoken word can do a lot for the markets, It’s no joke. Early in the week Ben Bernanke made a statement that the Fed may continue to offer emergency loans to investment banks facing liquidity issues.   Obviously this is good news for folks who had concerns with the stability of the market.  It isn’t a […]

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Mortgage Regulation Doesn’t Erase The Past

July 11, 2008

The Meeting Today, Ben Bernake and Henry Paulson were questioned in front of Congress to discuss the overhaul of our current financial regulatory system.  With the obvious stress in the financial markets, it’s obvious that Americans are getting worried.  Consumer confidence continues to get pummeled and the only news that is being told is the […]

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Des Moines, Iowa – Real Estate Market Watch – Week of June 30th, 2008

July 10, 2008

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 […]

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Mortgage Market Watch – Week of July 7th

July 7, 2008

It’s Going to be a Quiet News Week. With only four reports coming out this week, mortgage backed securities (what mortgage rates are based on) could be heavily influenced by other technical factors. Last week, the direction of the stock market made things easy to predict. I’m not sure I’d follow that this week. I’ll […]

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Mortgage Market Recap – Stocks Lead, Bonds Follow

July 6, 2008

On Monday, I mentioned how the stock market would be a great way to follow mortgage rates (so did Dan Green). It turned out to be accurate. How Much Information Do YOU Want? Did you ever read ‘Choose Your Own Adventure‘ books in school growing up? Ok, two ways to proceed with this weekly mortgage […]

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Microsoft is Coming to Des Moines!

July 2, 2008

More jobs for Iowa! That’s the news from Microsoft as they announced they’ll be building their next data center in Des Moines The project is expected to cost $550 million and employ 100 high tech workers. The (specific) location has not been determined yet and Microsoft has declined to comment on the project at this […]

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Des Moines’ Tap Water > Bottled Water

July 2, 2008

It’s my responsibility to share with you the news that really matters.. and this.. yea, this is a big deal. I can’t even say that without smiling. According to Forbes Magazine, Des Moines has the cleanest drinking water in the country…(Pause for reaction)… Yea, sort of took me by surprise too! Ok, so what does […]

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