ARCHIVED BLOG POSTS
2018
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Inflation remained contained in August and comes after Fed Chair Powell said this week that he doesn't see any upside surprises to inflation. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported this morning that Core Personal Consumption Expenditures, the Fed's favorite inflation gauge, was unchanged year-o...
09/28/2018
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Home price gains eased a bit in July and have begun to slow after the big gains seen in the past few years. The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index rose 5.9% from July 2017 to July 2018, down from the 6.4% year-over-year gain seen in June. On a monthly basis, prices were up just 0.1% from J...
09/25/2018
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The last week of the month and end of the third quarter is underway with several hurdles for the U.S. markets to jump this week. The two-day FOMC meeting begins tomorrow with the monetary policy statement being delivered at 2:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday. The Treasury will sell a total of $106B in sec...
09/24/2018
Despite the strong job market here in the U.S., banking and lending giant Wells Fargo plans on cutting up to 26,500 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, over the next three years. The bank said that the move into digital banking and the firm's efficiency programs would result in the layoffs along with ...
09/21/2018
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The National Association of REALTORS® reports that after four straight months of declines, Existing Home Sales were unchanged in August from July at an annual rate of 5.34 million units. That was below the 5.37 million expected. Flat sales were due to a balance of gains in the Northeast and Midwe...
09/20/2018
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Housing data dominates the headlines this week with news on August Housing Starts and Building Permits releasing on Wednesday and Existing Home Sales on Thursday. Housing Starts rebounded slightly in July after hitting a nine-month low in June, while sales of existing homes saw a fourth straight ...
09/17/2018
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Due in part to the rise in home prices over the past few years, tappable homeowner equity rose to its highest level ever in the second quarter of 2018. Data and analytics firm Black Knight, Inc. reports that tappable homeowner equity rose by $256 billion in the second quarter of 2018 to a total g...
09/10/2018
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The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that U.S. employers hired 201,000 new workers in August, above the 187,000 expected. However, June and July were revised lower by a total of 50,000 jobs. The big number within the report was the 0.4%t gain in wages from July to August, while year-over-year w...
09/07/2018
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Home loan rates were essentially unchanged in the latest week and remain near the low end when looking at rates going back 30 to 40 years. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose two basis points last week to 4.80%. In comparison, in the last week ...
09/05/2018
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Steve Reed
Steve Reed Branch Manager | Benchmark Home Loans