Dave's Blog

The single-largest drag on our economy is housing. The biggest kitchen-table concern is underemployment and unemployment. The two are connected as homeowners’ ability to buy homes is out of reach with the worst-in-our-lifetime employment picture. So the news from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (...

The FOMC released its announcement this morning at 9:30 eastern. Two very important indications of what the FOMC will do are found in the statement released to the press.   1. They anticipate keeping the “exceptionally low fed funds rate at least through late 2014″. (Had previously been “into lat...

Big news in the Interest Rates market! The mortgage backed securities that enable banks to package loans into the secondary market are at an all-time high which means rates are great and getting better. Only once ever has the 3.50% coupon MBS from Fannie Mae closed this high and it was in the exc...

...Jobs and it Begins with Housing! But wait... Unemployment dropped sharply last week to 8.6%! Watch this number. The biggest component of the drop is the 100s of thousands who gave up their search, either for the holidays or until the economy makes job search a bit better. I haven't heard any ...

Today's topic: Exploring some nationwide statistics on Foreclosures and Delinquent Loans. Delinquencies are the "pipeline" to future foreclosures. I read a report this morning that is very informative and I think you will like it too. You can find a PowerPoint graphically presenting all of the da...

The markets for interest rates improved last week and today largely on scares in Europe, but also on the action and inaction of the US Super Committee. There are mixed reactions in the bond watchers to the Super-committee inaction; some attribute today’s drop in rates to a US-budget-caused safety...

It's Official: Congress Passes And Obama Signs into Law the FHA Loan Limit Hike   What does this mean to Central Oregon?   First, note that this bill is lifting the FHA loan limit. In fact, congress considered and specifically excluded increasing the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae loan limits. This m...

The weeks and months and years of fretting over European debt came to a climax last week with replacement of both the Greek and Italian Prime Ministers. In both cases, they were replaced with technocrat, financial gurus rather than politicians. Berlusconi was finally ousted by a scandal, but a fi...

Europe teased us with an on-again, off-again solution to the Greek crisis with the PM announcing early in the week a rejection of the life raft floated to them. The rejection was in the form of a referendum to happen in 2012. This was followed by some back and forth political posturing in Greece,...

Right now, we have an incredible window of opportunity with lenders looking for commercial investor deals to fill their commitments. But before we go into details on this, here are some announcements and economic indicators we are all going to be watching during the week. Residential Refinance Pl...