A lot of people are nervous about what they are reading in the newspaper and hearing on TV. But how can you blame them? The media is bombarding people with reports about the housing decline and the sub-prime mortgage mess. However, Chief ECONOMIST for the National Mortgage Bankers Association, Do
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09/28/2007
The Fed also lowered the cost of borrowing directly from the Fed itself via the "Discount Window," where banks can pledge assets as collateral and receive loans of cash against them. In the past couple of weeks, those infusions of liquidity have helped ease the logjam in credit markets to a degre
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09/26/2007
In a kind of reversal of fortune, conforming 30 FRM averages moved up this week, while jumbo 30 FRM averages edged down, narrowing the gap between them to "only" 85 basis points. Given the extraordinarily wide markup over a comparable 10-year Treasury, there is plenty of room for fixed mortgage r
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09/25/2007
Your past customers are the most powerful people on your sales and marketing team. Don't you wish they could sit on your shoulder and tell everyone how great you are; how you helped them with their mortgage; how you changed their lives!The single most powerful method of subtle endorsement is the
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09/25/2007
Part of being a success as a loan officer is creating a brand by making your product memorable in the minds of your current and future clients. In the mortgage industry you are the product. What is an effective way to make yourself memorable?The Generic ApproachUsing a generic approach in your bu
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09/24/2007
But, as investors wait for the next shoe to drop, there is some hope that August might have been the bottom for hedge funds. With the Federal Reserve expected to cut interest rates next week, there has been some optimism that the markets will soon begin to reverse course and become more favorable
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09/13/2007
As of this morning the list of major U.S. lenders that have imploded since late 2006 has grown to 151, including Amstar, Mortgage Investors Group, BNC (Lehman) and Accredited. The "imploded" status is somewhat subjective and does not necessarily mean operations are ceased permanently: it can me
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09/10/2007
Reflective of the slower sales pace, inventory levels continue to climb and represent almost 10 months of available supply, nearly double what is considered satisfactory. - HSH AssociatesFannie Mae and Freddie Mac found a 3.2% increase in home prices over the last year, but that was the slowest p
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09/05/2007
Even in a declining market, there are still millions of dollars of real estate transactions occurring every single day. For example, While the FHA helped about 100,000 refinancers over the last fiscal year, they have ambitious plans to expand that number to perhaps 240,000 over the next one. That
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09/05/2007
The thorny issues of mortgage credit and liquidity continue to partially paralyze the mortgage market. Before any improvements can take place in backed-up mortgage credit streams, things need to at least stop getting worse, and the market needs to find a stable place to stand. The market is still
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09/04/2007
