Federal banking regulators have just closed California leviathan IndyMac Bank FSB. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has been named as conservator. I think this is the fifth bank to fail this year. The FDIC said it will transfer insured deposits and "substantially all the assets" of IndyMac Bank, to a newly created successor, IndyMac Federal Bank, which will be operated by the FDIC. IndyMac Bank, FSB had total assets of $32.01 billion and total deposits of $19.06 billion according to the [...]
I'm pleased to announce that the news relating to mortgages and economics has gotten a lot more inÂteresting for everyone this week. Lots of reasons to feel positive about where rates may be headed. At least in the short-term. First off, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke announced earlier this week that the Fed governors were conÂsidering extending the time that investment banks would have access to the Term Securities Lending Facility. This means, amongst other things, that these ailing [...]
"I'm not buying yet. I'm waiting on the sidelines for the market to hit rock bottom." You and the rest of the country. I'm not saying you're wrong. But I have two questions for you: 1.) How will you know when rock bottom happens in a complex market where the only perfect vision is hindsight, and the best statistics are at least 3 months old? Real estate isn't tracked in a real time manner such as publicly traded stocks so it is only weeks or months after a deal has been negotiated and closed [...]
The headlining article at money.cnn.com yesterday was titled Did the Fed go too far?, asking whether or not the Fed was prudent in hacking our Fed Funds Rate all the way down to 2%. I'll save you some time and skip to the end of the story: yes. Yes the Fed did go too far. But they ALWAYS go too far. They almost have to. As much as we like to think of ourselves in this country as a shining beacon of sense and logic, we really are very prone to mob-mentality. When the media gets us all [...]
As most of you know, I'm not a rose-colored-glasses-Realtor, more of a tell-it-like-it-is-Realtor, and that makes some call me a "pessimist" - so here's some good optimistic news - and big yellow, non-pessimistic, crack-smoking smiley face to boot. It's claimed that the single most accurate forecast tool for housing activity is the "Pending Home Sale Index" compiled by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). It's based on contracts signed - but not yet closed from around the U.S. and for [...]
According to a recent (Star Tower) press release, their half-acre rooftop garden on Osceola St. in downtown Orlando is fast becoming the new "in" venue in downtown Orlando. Albert Kodsi, president of Royal Palm who along with Historic Creations of Orlando developed the Star Tower condo, said recent rooftop events have included political rallies, charitable fundraisers and a recent Downtown Orlando Partnership event. "We are hosting events three and four nights a week on the rooftop," said [...]
This week was a mixed bag of encouraging economic news and dismal forecasts from everyone who matters. I'll do my best to keep the statistics to a bare minimum, but there are a couple of pertinent numbers that deserve our attention. First and foremost, our 1st quarter Gross Domestic Product growth was revised upwards from +0.6% annualized to +0.9%. That implies that our economic slowdown isn't quite as shocking as analysts 1st expected. Also, the core inflation reading was revised downward [...]
Renting out your Orlando vacation home, condo or villa will not only help offset some of the costs of second home ownership but the U.S. Tax Code also provides some pretty decent breaks. 1.) If you rent your home for 14 days or less in a given year, you don't have to pay any tax on the rental income. You don't even have to report the income to the IRS. This break also applies if you rent your primary home for 14 days or less, which means if you're going out of town for 2 weeks and want to rent [...]
For all his aggressive responses to our current credit crisis, Ben Bernanke certainly does like to end with a light touch. The Fed Funds Rate and the Discount Rate both received a 1/4 point cut on April 30th. This was what most experts predicted. Since rate cuts really take about 6 months to be felt by the economy, the Fed didn’t want to be overly forceful after a recent series of robust rate cuts that haven’t been absorbed yet. However, our [...]
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor's 500 stock indexes both experienced a slightly better than 4% gain over this past week. Mortgage bonds (and rates) suffered as a result. Is this indicating a fundamental change in the direction of the markets?  Yes, we are seeing a change. But it's not a change in the markets; it is a change in how investors have adapted to the markets. They are STARVING for good news to the point where they will throw a party even [...]
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