Fed Meeting Effect
Posted On: April 29th, 2009 by James Posted In: Government Actions • Mortgage Rates
The result of today’s Fed meeting is that they are leaving their key interest rate unchanged. Their optimistic tone about the “easing of our recession” has created a huge surge in the market place. Stock market is going up, a lot of money is leaving bonds and mortgage backed securities which is forcing fixed mortgage rates higher.
Click here for a great article on the topic.
Portland Report: May 2009
Posted On: April 28th, 2009 by James Posted In: Portland Real Estate
Latest installment of the “Portland Report” We cover the new Make Home Affordable initiative, as well as tips for 2009 “spring buying season” for both buyers and sellers.
Planning for Retirement (60 Minutes Video)
Posted On: April 24th, 2009 by James Posted In: Financial Health
I have never been too excited about the prospect of living off of my 401k proceeds in my golden years. I’m pretty young, so its a fairly abstract concept anyway, but it has never seemed to fully make sense that you can just “save” the money to live off of indefinitely. I understand that the compounding effect is what really puts things over the top for you, but lately the markets have obliterated years of gains. I recently saw an episode of 60 minutes that speaks to the pain many are going through with massive losses in their 401k just a few years before they were planning on living off the proceeds. There are some parts of this story that are hard to watch, but I feel that its important to think about. If you are assuming that your 401k will be the main foundation for your retirement income, please contact me. I want to look into your whole financial picture and help you to assemble a team of professionals to clarify your goals and help you execute them.
Timmy G Says: “Americans Should Refinance Now”
Posted On: April 22nd, 2009 by James Posted In: Financial Health • Mortgage Rates
Treasury secretary Tim Geithner made some comments today that the Fed has “achieved its goal” of lowering interest rates through the purchase of Mortgage Backed Securites. I don’t know how much longer they will do this… I imagine that this will keep up at least through the summer, but there are no guarantees. With the combination of the low rates, and the flexibility of some of these Fannie Mae/Obama “making home affordable” initiatives it is truly a critical time to investigate your options. They may never be so good again.
Economy Shows a Pulse – This Could Effect Rates
Posted On: April 19th, 2009 by James Posted In: Financial Health • Mortgage Rates
We’ve had a stunning run here in the last 2 weeks with conforming 30 year fixed rates holding steady at around 4.75%. Now that the fist quarter is in the books we’ve got “earnings season”! This means that all the big public companies are going to tell their shareholders how much they made or lost. So far the news has been kind of mixed, but compared to the end of Q4 2008, this is a big change. I’ve been writing about the change in ‘mark to market’ accounting rules, and the relaxation of this practice is allowing banks to show big profits (on paper). The story there is that these banks have pretty much been profitable all along, its just that on paper they had huge depressions in some of their holdings. Now they don’t have to calculate that into the picture. The encouraging news is bringing money out of the bond market and into the stock market…. The net effect of this is mortgage rates edging higher. I’m looking to lock in most of my clients as soon as possible.
