ARCHIVED BLOG POSTS
2011
The National Association of REALTORS® Pending Home Sales Index rose for the third straight month last month. A "pending home sale" is a home under contract to sell, but not yet closed. The Pending Home Sales Index rose 5 percent in March, posting its second-highest reading since April 2010. Not...
04/30/2011
Earlier today, the Federal Open Market Committee voted to leave the Fed Funds Rate unchanged within its current target range of 0.000-0.250 percent. The vote was 10-0 -- the third straight meeting after which the FOMC vote was unanimous. In its press release, the FOMC noted that since its March...
04/28/2011
1
Comments
After posting an all-time low in February, New Home Sales rebounded strongly last month. Based on joint research from the Census Bureau and HUD, 300,000 new, single-family homes were sold on a seasonally-adjusted, annualized basis in March. It's an 11 percent improvement from February, and righ...
04/28/2011
The Federal Open Market Committee starts a two-day meeting today, the third of its 8 scheduled meetings this year. The FOMC is a special, 12-person committee within the Federal Reserve. It's led by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and the group is responsible for voting on our nation's monetary policy...
04/27/2011
2
Comments
How do you use your garage? If you're like most homeowners, you park your car(s) in it, then use the remaining available space for the random storage of "things that don't go in the house". Your garage can do so much more -- all it needs is a little bit of organization. In this 4-minute vide...
04/26/2011
0
Comments
Veterans with active duty service (who were not dishonorably discharged) during World War II and later periods are eligible for VA loan benefits. World War II (September 16, 1940 to July 25, 1947), Korean conflict (June 27, 1950 to January 31, 1955), and Vietnam era (August 5, 1964 to May 7, 1975...
04/25/2011
Home resales rose 4 percent last month, according to the March Existing Home Sales report. A total of 5.1 million homes were sold on an annualized, seasonally-adjusted basis. The strong results re-establish the national, long-term trend toward rising home resales. March marked the 6th month out...
04/22/2011
2
Comments
According to the Census Bureau, seasonally-adjusted, single-family Housing Starts rebounded in March, increasing 8 percent over February's 2-year low. We can't put too much faith in the data, however, because for the second straight month, the government reports that the data's margin of error ...
04/21/2011
Homebuilder confidence is falling -- a good sign for buyers of newly-built homes in and around The Crossings. According to the National Association of Homebuilders, the Housing Market Index slipped one point to 16 in April. It's the 5th time in 6 months that the index read 16 -- a figure exactl...
04/20/2011
There's a long-standing myth that freezer-section produce is "worse for you" than fresh produce from a farm. The truth, however, is often the opposite. Because of upgrades in packaging and delivery methods, frozen produce is often more fresh than "fresh produce", and contains higher nutrient le...
04/18/2011