A recent Federal Reserve study elucidated the fact that about 2.3 million homeowners could have refi­nanced last year had lending standards not been so strict or had they not owed more than the home is worth.  You don’t say.  Well I’ll be goll-derned.  You mean to tell me that this whole mortgage situa­tion would be better if people still had home equity?  Man.  I gotta get me some of THAT stuff. 

Existing home sales jumped upwards 7.7% while new home sales dropped 2.3% month-over-month.  Translation: the waters are still choppy.  No clear trend-line has emerged giving investors or prospec­tive homeowners a clear direction as to where the market is heading.  I’d love to give you the rose-tinted approach to these numbers, but that would be disingenuous of me.  

Amidst that choppiness, Moody’s ratings agency cut the ratings for debt issued by Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, claiming that the U.S. is now more likely (due to political pressures) to al­low a defunct bank to go under (as opposed to an AIG-style of taxpayer subsidized bailout).  Good to know that major bank failure is still at the forefront of our minds.  That worked out ever so well back in 2008.