The Chicago 77

30 June 2009 ? Today Consumer Confidence and Case-Shiller are impacting bonds in different directions. For starters the Case-Shiller Home Index Reading is a report that measures the home prices in the 20 largest US cities. The report is from April and showed fewer negative readings than prior reports, a slowing pace of decline in [...]

30 June 2009 ? Changes in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act and The Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act that were made last October will go into effect July 30, 2009. All lenders and brokers must comply with the new rules. It will impact the real estate industry every single day. Realistic expectations will [...]

29 June 2009 ?Mortgage backed bonds opened up 22 bps today and currently are up 12 bps. The 30 year fixed continues to trend lower as the bond market gains momentum. China announced they will continue to buy US debt as part of their current foreign currency reserve policy. The 30 year rate is now [...]

In March 2008, Fannie Mae entered into an agreement with The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). This agreement was set up to adopt certain policies relating to appraisals for mortgages. Starting May 1st, 2009 the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) came into effect for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchased loans. HVCC Means Only [...]

29 June 2009 – This week?s Crain?s Chicago Business (PDF) is reporting that the relative cost of owning vs. renting is swinging back in favor of home ownership across the U.S. and in Chicago. The Chicago real estate market is already seeing signs of this with an increase in pending home sales. There are great [...]

26 June 2009 – Mortgage-backed bonds opened down 1 this morning and remain flat. The savings rate soared to 6.9%, which caught many by surprise; this is the highest level since 1993 and stocks are reacting negatively to this news that consumers are keeping their money in savings. This may impact the pace that the [...]

26 June 2009 ? The National Association of Realtors responds to problems with appraisals causing deals to be delayed or canceled altogether. Charles McMillan, 2009 NAR President will be in New York on Monday, June 29 meeting with the Deputy Attorney General and his staff who worked directly on the Home Valuation Code of Conduct [...]

Over the past few months, I have noticed more and more home insurance activity: People picking up houses in foreclosure to fix it up to rent out; Buying foreclosures to move in to eventually; Renovating homes to flip them; People who can?t sell their homes either (1) renting out their homes or (2 ) even [...]

25 June 2009 ? Mortgage backed bonds opened up 19 this morning and continued to trend up to a positive 41! Mortgage Bonds may be rallying as the unemployment continues to rise with 15,000 more jobs lost than forecasted. Yesterday?s announcement by the FED that they will keep the Prime Rate close to zero (0) [...]

While attending the recent SPARKt conference I had the pleasure of listening to Adrian Holovaty, the founder of EveryBlock.com explain his unique service. If you haven’t heard of it, I suggest you head over their right away and sign up. It’s amazing. What is EveryBlock? EveryBlock.com is a service that goes out onto the web [...]

25 June 2009 ? Home sales in Chicago fell 18.7% during the month of May as compared to the same time last year. This number is spread over a nine county area. The month of May was the smallest decline in a month-over-month comparison this year. The City of Chicago saw a 27.5% drop in [...]

Here?s a question real estate agents are hearing lately??With so many short sales out there?does that mean the market is getting worse and should I be concerned about buying now verses later this year?? The answer, in a word, ?No.? Short sales certainly seem to be on the rise due to a variety of reasons: [...]

24 June 2009 ? Mortgage backed bonds opened down 6 this morning and continued to trend down to -16. The 30-year and 15-year mortgage rates are priced off of mortgage backed bonds, not the 10-year Treasury bonds as many consumers mistakenly believe. Stocks rose after an earlier report from the Commerce Dept. showed orders for [...]