Diane Gerdes's (dianegerdes) Blog

Is that the sun peaking through the clouds? Housing resales in some communities are showing signs of recovery, mainly spurred by sales of REO’s. Wednesday’s Consumer Price Index indicated that the prices we are paying are in line with what we are making, therefore keeping the big “I” (inflation) ...

Mortgage Update   There are only two types of loans: Conventional and Government (FHA,VA and The Department of Agriculture, more on the Government loans in next weeks e-mail)  Conventional Loans with loan amounts below $417,000 are virtually all purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  It is Fan...

The International Money Fund issued a statement today stating the main worries for our globe today is inflation. Food and Energy (oil) costs are at an all time high and it is not just the third world countries that are at risk. The rising costs will affect all of us. Some analysts are predicting ...

U. S. Investor’s happy thoughts paid off in this busy week of positive economic reports. Personal Consumption grew by .04 per cent in March up from the previous month (could it be from feeding our cars?), manufacturing activity continued to grow, and our exports increased. The Gross Domestic Pro...

U. S. Markets were doing the happy dance this week when unexpected strong corporate earnings from Ford (from European sales), American Express (from overseas business), and Goodyear Tires (overseas purchases) steadied the Stock Market. According to the unemployment claims more people are working ...

The U. S. stock market jived to a different beat than the rest of the world all week. Friday was a banner day for Wall Street even though Citigroup, Chase, and Merrill Lynch posted gut wrenching losses with amounts that are unprintable. What the stock market heard is “the losses were not as sever...

Like Cousin Eddie from the “Vacation” movies, recession has made an unwelcomed stop at the U.S. economy. Since 1854 the U.S. has experienced 32 cycles of economic growth and pull backs. Since 1980 we have had 4 recessionary periods. A recession is defined as a decline in economic activity measure...

The U. S. Senate agreed to move forward on a housing relief package yesterday to cure the housing market. Some got off their medication long enough to propose to raise the down payment for FHA to 3.5 percent of the sales price when just a few months ago they were going to lower the down payment t...

Once upon a time (2005) in a peaceful sunny land not too far away (Arizona), Builders came and built homes. Then the Builders got greedy. All of them decided to increase prices. The people of Phoenix became afraid that there would be no homes left for their families, so they bought. Would-be inve...

By yesterday evening, mortgage lenders that were not found in the middle Interstate 10 babbling to themselves or imbibing their favorite adult beverage were too stunned to talk about their day. In the morning we were all doing the happy dance with the announcement of FHA loan limits for Maricopa ...