Rick Bernstein's (rickbmrtg) Blog

Hello to all of my colleagues  As emotional and painful as the last week has been, we have arrived at a key time in this nation's financial recovery. On November 4th, America made their choice of who they wanted to lead us for the next four years. Whether it was Senator McCain or Senator Obama, w...

Hello to all of my colleagues in Real Estate In my last update, I told you that as Wall Street began to lose its volatility and fundamentals began to dictate market direction, money would begin to flow into mortgage backed securities which would result in lower mortgage rates. Since then, the Fed...

Hello to all my Real Estate partners  What a week it has been! On Wall Street, every day has resulted in a triple digit change with 4 of the 5 days ending in changes over 400 points!  Monday we saw one of the worst slides in history as the DOW finished down 504 points. On Tuesday, the Feds met to...

When HUD came out with the FHA and VA programs, they were designed to fit the needs of the credit challenged borrower and the borrower with little to put down. When sub-prime programs hit the market, for a certain percentage of borrowers, it was easier to take the path of least resistance and use...

Hello again to all my Real Estate PartnersI wanted to wait until the market reacted to the government job reports before I wrote this update. Wednesday marked a very different strategy for  Ben Bernanke and the Federal Open Market Committee. After lowering the Federal Funds Rate (the rate banks l...

Hello to all of my colleagues in Real EstateWOW! Hold on for dear life! The actions of the last two weeks brings to mind the phrase that we are all familiar with..."Survive to Thrive!". We have to live through the tough times to get to the good ones. It could be that the good times are closer tha...

Hello to all my colleaguesI know that I am beginning to sound like a broken record when I use the word volatility. Unfortunately, there just is no better way to describe it.  Let's get all the bad news out of the way. Last month I told you that my sources indicated there would be a nationwide inc...

Hello to all my valued colleagues  So much has happened in the last two weeks and yet in some ways not much has changed. Late on Monday evening two weeks ago, I sent this note to 400 Real Estate agents in my area. "It looks like the perfect storm! Dow futures are down almost 500 points after Asia...

Hello to my colleagues and clientsWOW! After the Feds jumped in and lowered the Federal Funds Rate and Discount rate 3/4 point last Tuesday, I told you that this was the most volatile market I have seen in a very long time. That day we saw the DOW drop 500 points right after the announcement (it ...

Hi, Real Estate PartnersWell...the name of the game is volatility! Very early Tuesday morning (well before the Wall Street bell), I told you that unless Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve would cut the discount and federal funds rates BEFORE the opening bell, there would be a flight to safety a...