Diane Gerdes's (dianegerdes) Blog

The rise in oil prices has started to seep into our everyday expenses, from all things plastic to gasoline. Now that ethanol is a hot commodity, land and grain are in big demand. And not for food. Therefore our food prices have gone up. What we make vs. what we pay for our necessities is increasi...

This week we were in the stands viewing the three ring circus called the U.S. economy. In the main ring, President’s Bush’s economic stimulus package became a knife throwing contest between the legislators and the Government Servicing Agencies (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for conventional loans an...

Finally, lenders are in agreement: Homes going into foreclosure is not such a good idea. Countrywide, Bank of America, Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Washington Mutual announced this week that they are implementing a moratorium on foreclosures with the borrowers that want to save their homes. ...

Arguing with underwriters regarding property values has long been a time honored skill. But that was so 2006 and now no arm wrestling is allowed. If your client buys a property with a limited down program (and it is the deal of any century!) and that undersold property is determined to be in a de...

This week kicked off with the Fed lowering the Fed rate (official definition): the rate that banks charge each other for overnight loans of federal funds, which are the reserves, held by banks at the Fed. So, no, it does not affect the 30 year fixed interest rates, no matter what your friends say...

Just the facts, please, (as of today): HR5140 has past the House of Representatives. It still has to be approved by the Senate and signed off by the President. Although the House passed the bill with no changes, the Senate may not be quite as bipartisan with several Senators having their own agen...

Prayers were answered all over the world Tuesday morning when the Feds dropped the Fed rate .750 in response to Monday’s global stock melt down. The following 4 days have been a gut wrenching ride with ups and downs in Wall Street. After falling over 400 points first thing on Tuesday, stocks star...

Countries around the world are joining together and pumping billions of dollars into.....Food Banks? Medical Facilities? Alternative Fuel Sources? Little children everywhere? Nope. Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, & UBS have already received over 27 BILLION dollars to refill their vault...

Countrywide’s acquisition by Bank of America ended a week of speculation of bankruptcy, abandonment and takeover. Bank of America’s CEO Kenneth D. Lewis flew in and saved the day for Countrywide stock holders after seeing their stock dip below $5.00 per share on Wednesday or an 88% drop since thi...

Today’s employment numbers reflected more people are without jobs since 2005. This sent a panic to the already battered Wall Street. The Fed is stating they will lower the Fed rate as much as it takes to prevent the economy from going into a housing-bust initiated recession. That’s swell. With th...