Ricardo Cortez's (rcortez) Blog

  A quick post for my fellow real estate professionals in Arizona;   as well as home buyers and home sellers who may be in escrow and should be aware of the AAR (AZ Association of Realtors) legal opinion on... ‘Appraisal Contingency' and how it buyer & seller rights, time frames and earnest monie...

Stocks plunged Thursday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average down 679 points -- more than 7 percent -- the stock markets are at their lowest level in five years. Stocks took a nosedive after a major credit-rating agency said it might cut its rating on General Motors and Ford, further rattlin...

Jobs are vanishing at the fastest pace in more than five years with pink slips likely to keep stacking higher in the months ahead, an urgent signal the country may be careening toward a deep and painful recession just as Americans prepare to elect a new president.  It was the ninth straight month...

The Treasury will buy banks' risky mortgage-backed assets in an effort to alleviate investors' worries about the institutions' solvency and free them up to do more lending. Even if those efforts succeed, the effects of the FED bailout will be far from instantaneous, and borrowing could remain ver...

As we are watching the rhetoric of the Debates and the campaigning to be the next President of the United States. One of the key issues and question on many people's mind is what will either candidate do, if elected, to stimulate an ailing real estate market, especially here in Arizona. Each can...

The credit markets finally got a bailout bill, but the stranglehold hasn't let up -- a troubling sign that lenders and investors believe the package will only be a baby step in the long road to economic recovery. The credit markets, where companies go to get cash loans, have seized up since the b...

Wall Street ended its worst week in seven years with another tumble on Friday on fears that the $700 billion financial rescue package may not unblock credit markets and stave off a U.S. recession. After much legislative haggling that roiled and captivated global markets for the past two weeks, th...

The Freddie Mac survey showed that other mortgage rates rose this week as well. Rates on 15-year, fixed-rate mortgages, a popular choice for refinancing, rose to 5.77 percent, up from 5.35 percent last week. Rates on five-year, adjustable-rate mortgages averaged 6.02 percent this week, up from 5....

Rates on 30-year mortgages, which had been falling for five weeks, jumped sharply this week, reflecting the turbulence in global credit markets. The increase, which pushed rates above 6 percent for the first time since early September, was blamed on turbulent financial markets, which in recent we...

Financial markets grew more upbeat Thursday as congressional leaders said they had struck an agreement in principle on the government's plan to revive the crippled financial system. The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 200 points on optimism about the plan, and demand for short-term, s...