Loren's Blog

It's like leaving the closet light on all day and all night, all year. When 12 months are up, you will have spent between $50 and $70 to keep that light burning. That's an undeniably wasteful way to blow 50 bucks, but that's how much energy is lost in an average household every year. The culprit:...

The national foreclosure moratorium imposed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, major banks such as Citibank and Bank of America, and a host of state governments has created a "breather" for homeowners in default. By working with loan servicers, some homeowners will be able to modify their loan terms ...

Stocks, Treasuries, and Mortgage-Backed Securities(MBS) all showed significant losses today. Weaker than expected economic data was consistent with the decline in stocks, but Treasuries and MBS usually benefit from weak economic news. Bond markets continued to suffer for a second day after the Fe...

It was a volatile session in the Mortgage-Backed Securities market today. First favorable and later unfavorable repricing took place. MBS prices fell after the release of the Fed statement, and Treasuries dropped far more. Investors were hoping for more clarity on the circumstances which would ca...

Saw a news item in the morning paper that just made me cringe...and had nothing to do with the housing industry, for a change!!! A Wisconsin State Supreme Court ruling yesterday says that a former Cheerleader cannot sue another cheerleader who had dropped he during a 'stunt' in 2004. WHAT??? I ha...

The major highlight this week will be Wednesday's Fed meeting. With the fed funds rate close to zero, rate cuts may no longer be an option. The Fed has many other tools at its disposal, though, and the accompanying statement will be highly anticipated. A wide range of other beconomic data will co...

This past week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, publicly laid out an aggressive agenda for our central bank and suggested that he's hardly out of ammunition to fight the global financial crisis. He also gave explicit support to efforts by Congress and President-elect Barack Obama to create...

To get us through the early part of this new year, let's get some perspective on what could be driving real estate matters in the weeks to come. First off, it looks as if low fixed interest rates for mortgages-now around 5%-will be with us awhile. But rates could begin to rise if the stock market...

So, do you still feel 'change' coming today??? I ask that tongue-in-cheek because the only change that has been going on the past week is Mortgage Interest rates creeping upward about 3/8ths of a percent! I've gotten a lot of e-mails asking me "why", so I thought I would try and answer many of th...

Now that we have begun a new Presedential era and will embark on what could be the most expensive economic stimulus package in history, Americans will soon discover how unfolding events will affect the housing market. Last year was the nastiest housing market on record. Economists and industry ex...