Overall Personal Consumption Expenditures, the Fed’s favorite measure of consumer inflation, were +0.5% for July and +4.5% year over year, which was the highest monthly spike since February 1981. Overall means that the number includes prices for food and gas. The Core PCE, which excludes food and energy, was +0.2% for July and +2.4% year
August 2008
I know that I’ve been in the mortgage banking business too long when my children start using the trendy mortgage-banker phrases. The other day I asked my daughter to clean up her room, and she replied, “Dad, let’s circle back on this tomorrow – I have other things to do. And then we can close
Like the US and Europe, Japan is posting 10-year highs on inflation due largely to oil and food prices. But at 2.4%, their inflation rate is lower in general: Japanese inflation hit a new decade-high in July … While annual core inflation rose to 2.4 percent, analysts said it was unlikely to prompt the Bank
Below are some excerpts from Obama’s speech tonight accepting the Democratic nomination for President…….. Change means a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it. Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will
After last month’s report showing 2Q2008 GDP at 1.9%, the number has been revised upward to show that the economy actually grew by 3.3% in the second quarter. Yet also today, jobless claims for the week were reported at 425,000. Regarding GDP, a Bloomberg report said the revision higher was due mostly to an export
What is the Thursday before a Labor Day weekend like? Well, besides office staffs around the nation wondering if they’re going to be able to leave early Friday afternoon, locks are generally slow. Many agents don’t want to lose three days of underwriting/processing time on a short-term lock, so they decide to wait until the
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have had a few good trading days this week, but they’re still ripe for a near-term Treasury bailout if capital problems persist. As NY Times writer Gretchen Morgenson pointed out Sunday, this bailout is complicated by credit default insurance (or swaps). She’s covered this otherwise under-reported area of the credit
(If you only want to read good news, skip to another paragraph.) It appears that, as the summer winds down, mortgage agents and brokers are taking a look at their pipelines. It seems that at many originators, a strong a June & July has been followed by a slightly weak August, funding-wise. Locks are generally
The Commerce Department reported that sales of new single family homes in July 2008 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 515,000. The estimates come from U.S. Census and HUD data. This is 2.4 percent above the revised June rate of 503,000, but is 35.3 percent below the July 2007 estimate of 796,000. The
The S&P Case Shiller June 2008 report of existing home sales showed record year-over-year 15.9% price declines averaged across 20 major cities, and 15.4% declines from 2Q07 to 2Q08 (see table below). Prices were down from Q108 to Q208. In June, nine of the 20 cities were up month-to-month compared with seven in May. Nevertheless,
Thornburg reported earnings yesterday and here are the results: Second-quarter profit rose to $412.3 million, or 84 cents per share, from $83.4 million, or 66 cents, a year earlier. A large gain related to a financing transaction offset a $209.6 million write-down of mortgages. Thornburg in June reported a $3.31 billion first-quarter loss. Thornburg said
Agents enjoy talking about the great the loans are that are being originated now, and “Why wouldn’t investors want to buy them?” On the flip side, this is just what mortgage investors don’t want to see: headline stories about how mortgage fraud is still going strong. MORE ON DOWN PAYMENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS Here is more
Classic song from The Band explains The Weight of current Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac crisis. You’ve heard it a million times in good context when you watched The Big Chill, Easy Rider, Starsky & Hutch (movie), The Sopranos, My Name is Earl, or in horrible context like Diet Coke and AT&T ads. But now it’s back to
Those clever FDIC/Indymac folks! They are sending out letters to their HELOC borrowers, saying, “IndyMac Federal Bank will be selling your home equity line of credit to a third party within the next 90 days.” (Who? We’d all like to know!) “To help facilitate this transaction, IMFB is willing to pay the greater of $500
I decided that if overlays (restrictions on guidelines or pricing) are good enough for our investors, they’re good enough for my family! So last night I told my daughter, 14 years old but going on 24, that I loved her – but with overlays. “I love you, but when you glare at me there’s a
Bloomberg did an extensive profile on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson today, which covers a lot of biographical and also serves as a good timeline of the credit crunch. Former Goldman Sachs CEO Paulson was brought in to run the Treasury after the Bush administration struggled with its first two men in the post: Paul O’Neill
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