Monthly Archives: November 2011

Cyber Monday: Has the “Confidence Fairy” Arrived?

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Joe Meek

Early reports indicate that consumer spending over the Thanksgiving holiday beat many estimates with some reports indicating a 15% year-over-year increase.

In this Monday’s Morning View with Bill and Bob, the discussion centered on what effects, if any, this higher retail spending might have on other areas of our economy, like the housing market.

The guys roundly agreed that spending was much more fun than saving, and expressed… Continue reading

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Being Thankful, Even For Small Blessings…

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Joe Meek

It seems fitting on this Thanksgiving week that there is at least some positive news being reported in the media. On Tuesday, CBS MoneyWatch led with a story by Ilyce Glink titled: “Home sales up, but housing prices continue to fall nationwide.” Though acknowledging that the sales numbers, according to a survey by the National Association of Realtors®, only increased by 1.4%, and admitting that this increase would amount… Continue reading

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Thankful for Higher FHA Loan Limits?

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Nora Brown

FNC’s Morning View callers couldn’t see Bill Rayburn’s pink shirt, pink tie, and yellow ascot on Monday, but he and Bob Dorsey were in a festive mood going into the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Bob: We need to talk about important stuff first. Have you got your turkey yet, or are you having a pig this year?

Bill: We got a lot of turkey. We got a lot… Continue reading

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Foreclosure Price Discount: A Lemon Discount, A Liquidity Discount, or Both?

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Yanling Mayer

The collapse of the U.S. housing market in 2006 has unleashed an unprecedented wave of residential mortgage defaults and foreclosures. It is no coincidence that the mortgage crisis is more concentrated in areas where home prices have experienced steep declines, and in subprime neighborhoods where borrowers tend to have minimum equity in their highly leveraged homes. Despite that the subprime mortgage crisis is now stretching into its sixth year, sales… Continue reading

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Weekly Wrapup: Halfway In, Halfway Out, or Stuck in the Middle…

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Joe Meek

Earlier this week, the Obama administration announced new rules included in a major overhaul of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). Among these were steps that would relax certain rules and lower borrower fees for homeowners with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, allowing these homeowners with endangered mortgage positions to possibly refinance their mortgages at current historically low rates. Another provision in the changed rules would streamline… Continue reading

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Tech Thursday: Will We see an Amazon Smartphone in the Near Future?

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Seth Klein

A little over a month ago I spoke to you about Amazon entering the tablet industry with their Kindle Fire, and now it looks like Amazon is poised to enter into the smartphone industry sometime next year.

Citi analysts Mark Mahaney and Kevin Chang released a research report today which states an “Amazon smartphone may be coming in the next year.”

The Citi report also believes Amazon… Continue reading

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Original Sin (not the apple-eating kind)

Posted on November 16, 2011 by Nora Brown

From www.fncmorningview.com:

Original sin, as an economic concept, refers to a country, corporation, or individual borrowing in a denominated currency other than its own. In the 17 European Union countries that hold the euro as their legal tender, original sin ties weaker economies, like Greece’s, to stronger nations such as Germany.

Bill Rayburn noted that many U.S. banks have already disclosed their connections to the European debt… Continue reading

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Calm Amid Chaos

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Bill Dabney

Chaos. That’s what some mortgage industry experts are predicting will happen when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s UCDP initiative takes effect next month.

As of Dec. 1 — just over two weeks away — mortgage lenders will be required to upload their appraisals as electronic data via the GSEs’ Uniform Collateral Data Portal (UCDP) for loan applications being delivered on or after March 2012. By now, lenders should not… Continue reading

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Weekly Wrapup: The continuing saga of Freddie and Fannie

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Joe Meek

For those waiting for the other shoe to drop after Freddie Mac requested $6 billion in additional federal bailout dollars last week, the wait wasn’t too long. On Thursday in a story by Derek Kravitz that was widely reported by newspapers, Fannie Mae asks taxpayers for another bailout, the Associated Press reported that Fannie Mae had indeed followed suit, requesting an additional $7.8 billion be added to the $112.6… Continue reading

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Tech Thursday: A Free App that could Save Your Life

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Seth Klein

A new free consumer health application for the iPhone, called Glooko, might be able to help save your life.

Glooko is a digital logbook for people who check their blood sugar every day due to diabetes. The iTunes store currently offers several similar logbooks, but Glooko stands out because it doesn’t require users to enter information manually… Continue reading

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