Monthly Archives: September 2011

Tech Thursday: Can Amazon Fight off Apple’s iPad With Fire?

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Seth Klein

Amazon has announced its newest creation, the Kindle Fire, in an attempt to burn the leader of the tablet industry — iPad — and gain a majority of the market share.

Apple is likely thinking there’s no way that the 7-inch, 8GB Kindle Fire will be able to compete with its 10-inch 16GB iPad, but if you dig a little deeper  than the size of the product, there

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Let’s Seriously Do the Numbers.

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Yanling Mayer

Last week, ahead of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, a number of price indices reported the latest July home price trends. While all indices are pointing to a fairly decent seasonal upswing in the housing market, beneath this consensus lies significantly overlooked differences.

One of these difference concerns what type of sales transactions need to be measured in order to capture a relatively accurate picture of what’s happening to… Continue reading

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Tech Thursday: Will a Phone Replace our Wallets?

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Seth Klein

Google recently announced their brand-new software for cell phones that will one day replace the credit cards in our wallets.

This new software, called Google Wallet, is intended to make your next purchase much more convenient with the swipe of your cell phone over a special chip reader, basically allowing your cell phone to take… Continue reading

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A Collection of Misfits

Posted on September 21, 2011 by Nora Brown

How do good neighborhoods differ from good companies?

Bill Rayburn and Bob Dorsey explained in this week’s Morning View.

Properties in a good neighborhood need to be similar to increase value. Employees in a good company tend to be very different individuals – “a collection of misfits.” Below are some highlights from this week’s call.

What is a distressed/declining market?

A distressed market is when there… Continue reading

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Updates for Underwriters

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Bill Dabney

Compliance with UAD doesn’t diminish the role of the lender’s underwriter or the lender’s responsibility to review the appraisal, according to Fannie Mae’s Bob Murphy, director of collateral policy, speaking as part of a panel presentation moderated by FNC Risk Manager Steve Conlin at the MBA QA and Underwriting Conference last week in New Orleans.

As of… Continue reading

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The Crash Course: A Review; Plus: Predictions with FNC’s RPI

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Lance Thoet

Recently, I read The Crash Course, a fantastic book by Chris Martenson. In the book, Martenson examines the future of our economy, including energy demands and environmental impacts and makes the argument that our current conditions are unsustainable.

Of particular interest to our industry are pages 85–87, where Martenson discusses the housing bubble. His… Continue reading

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Tech Thursday: Demand for iPhone 5 Running High

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Seth Klein

To many Apple fans, the rumored October release of the iPhone 5 can’t come soon enough.

An August survey of 2,200 respondents (administered by ChangeWave for RBC Capital Markets) shows 31 percent of respondents are very or somewhat likely to purchase the iPhone 5. This number is considerably higher than the 25 percent of people who said they were very or somewhat likely to purchase the iPhone 4… Continue reading

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Jobs Given, Jobs Taken Away

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Nora Brown

Spoiler alert: This post is not, in fact, about Steve Jobs.

On Monday, Bank of America’s chief executive Brian T. Moynihan promised to cut $5 billion in annual costs by 2014 (“Bank of America Confirms Plan to Cut 30,000 Positions”). Moynihan vowed to make Bank of America the “best” bank in America, even if not the biggest: At least 30,000 jobs will be eliminated as part of Bank… Continue reading

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FNC’s Weekly Business Wrap-Up for Sept. 9

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Joe Meek

It really all does come down to a confidence game in the end. An online article yesterday in Housing Predictor, titled: “Low Economic Confidence Hinders Housing Recovery,” states the case clearly. Their research indicates that “exceptionally high volatility in financial markets has led Americans to doubt a recovery in the housing market is possible, at least for the time being, according to a new Housing Predictor opinion poll.” (Source

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Tech Thursday: Seeing 9/11 WTC Attack from Space

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Seth Klein

This Sunday marks the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11, 2001. After ten years, NASA has released never-before-seen video showing the attacks on the World Trade Center from 200 miles above Earth.

American astronaut Frank Culbertson and two Russian cosmonauts were aboard the International Space Station, which happened to be passing over New York City as the second WTC tower… Continue reading

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