Bob's Blog

What are the odds that the current slip in the stock market is the signal of another mini-recession? According to Birinyi Associates the odds are about 38% that we are at the cusp of a new bull market, based on an analysis of the 24 declines of greater than 10% of the S&P 500 since 1962. Nine tim...

According to the Commerce Department there are signs of economic recovery in the U.S. economy. U.S. companies are beginning to put more money into equipment and software, signaling greater confidence in the economy. Equipment purchases rose 13.4% in the first quarter of 2010 compared to last year...

Last Thursday the Senate passed the Restoring American Financial Security Act on a vote of 59 to 39 with 4 Republicans joining the Democratic majority to affirm the measure. The Senate bill joins a House version to be approved. The House and Senate bills will now be reconciled before a final bill...

Looking at moving averages of quarterly housing statistics Clear Capital announced that April's decline of 5.0% in the overall U.S. housing value from three months before was an improvement over the decline the previous month by 1.1%.  A 3.9% drop in the decline occurred between February and Marc...

No one wants to see a return of the meteoric drops in home prices that have plagued so many parts of the country over the last three years.  The ripple effect on the whole economy is devastating.  Unfortunately, there are lots of indicators that show that the real estate market is fixing for a do...

According to Trepp LLC research the default rate of commercial mortgage-backed securities reached an all-time high in April. The rate of commercial mortgages 30 days or more late, in foreclosure, or being sold as REOs jumped to a record high of 8.02% in April. Fitch Ratings pegs the default rate ...

The difference between an Investor who makes millions and can retire early and one who struggles and fails often comes down to understanding and responding appropriately to housing market cycles. Traditionally, the housing market operates on 8 to 12 year cycles with at least four distinct stages....

A Trulia/Realtytrac survey released last week showed that 59% of Homeowners said they would not consider walking away from an under water mortgage through strategic default. A strategic default is a decision to go 90 days or more late on a mortgage and to essentially walk away from a property eve...

The Hope Now program reported that in the first quarter of the year lenders completed 476,197 trial modifications, permanent modifications and other work out plans to avoid foreclosure for homeowners. That's 29% higher than the total for the same period a year ago. Hope Now's figures include both...

When the Home Affordable Modification Program first cranked up lenders were allowing temporary modifications to be put in place with only stated income information. The big four-Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo and CitiMortgage-were all allowing this partial information in approving the initia...