Recent days have seen continued rebounds in housing, corporate profit reports and consumer confidence.
Two reports early this week point to continued progress in residential housing resales. On Monday the National Association of Realtors implied that the home-buyer tax credit will likely sustain the housing market throughout next year. In October, first-time buyers used the tax [...]

In October the number of U.S. properties for which a foreclosure filing was received declined for the third month sequentially according to a RealtyTrac report released on Wednesday. The report is a further indication that foreclosures are beginning to subside and that the housing sector is stabilizing.
According to the report, total foreclosure filings in [...]

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has proposed a new version of a popular home-buyer tax-credit extension. Folks close to the matter claim a vote on the proposal is coming shortly.
Another recent Senate alternative would continue the $8,000 credit for four months and then gradually phase it out after that. Current law has the [...]

Back in June we pointed out a dozen housing markets that were showing pricing improvement. This week revealed a dozen more.
A jump in the national S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index further clarifies that the price drops of the past few years are now over. The 20-city index rose quarter-over-quarter by 1.4%
“This is great news; prices [...]

Why, oh why, did the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression have to hit during a presidential election year?
The ‘Fear Index’, also known as the VIX (or, officially, the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index) is a financial tool that measures market swings or volatility. The higher the VIX goes, the scarier the market [...]

OK, I know Lehman Brothers just tanked, Fannie and Freddie have been seized, and AIG has been taken over by the Fed, but can we put all that aside for just a few minutes and talk about me for a change, please? I have liquidity problems of my own, and that being the case, I [...]

It has finally happened: the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together own or guarantee almost half of the $12 trillion home mortgage debt. The takeover came after inspectors poring over the books of the two companies concluded that the accounting methods used by Freddie Mac had overstated the capital cushion of [...]

There seems to be no end to the foreclosure crisis. In fact it is likely to get worse.
Option Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) allow homeowners to choose a low minimum monthly payment typically for five years. The low monthly payments often fall short of the interest due on the loan. The difference is added to the [...]

If you’ve opened a newspaper or turned on a television in the last year, you know that the housing market is in serious trouble. A week ago, it was announced that home prices had fallen by 15.3%, year-over-year. This marked the first time in history that all 20 metropolitan markets measured by the government posted [...]