Lowest Mortgage Interest In A Long Time

While not directly tied to the 10 year Treasury, mortgage interest tends to track it pretty closely, and today the 10 year dipped below 3% for the first time since last year. This should be incredibly good news for folks looking for a purchase or refinance loan, and it is except for a couple of details. First, loans are tough to come by, they require very good credit and substantial down payments or equity in the case of refinance applications. Second, the folks who have the level of credit and finances that lenders are looking for, characteristically have substantial stock holdings, usually 401K or similar. While interest rates are down, so are stocks, and the valuation of portfolios has taken some severe hits. It's tough to concentrate on other matters when the decline in personal wealth is so sharp and so severe, and the fear of more to come is so pervasive. This government can not accept the reality that taking from one group to give to another group is not stimulating nor creative of job or economic growth. Wealth is removed from those who would utilize it for entrepreneurial gain, creating jobs, and given or redistributed to those whose sole purpose on the planet is developing innovative strategies to take even more.
Obama is a failed President and painfully, for us, demonstrates that you can't expect executive leadership from someone with absolutely NO executive experience. Bad enough that he is hurting all of us directly but he has become a laughingstock in the international community and has diminished the luster that we rightfully enjoyed as leaders and protectors of the free world. Until very recently we were respected or feared by every nation on earth, allowing us to enjoy great freedoms for ourselves and to provide help for those who sought to emulate us, and discourage those who sought to disrupt the rights of others. With some wise choices in November, and again in 2012, we'll begin the restorative process, and we will recover, but what a waste it has been. We must take care to choose elected officials with attention to the values they adhere to, using the same techniques any employer would use, experience, ethics, goals, and a desire to leave things better than they found them. Enough of career politicians, enough of lobbying, earmarking, favoritism, and the culture of greed. Enough of fancying that bureaucrats or politicians can better determine the use of money than the people they took it away from. There are a million things that need to be done, but with the right people guiding the process, we'll get them done. The country sought out and utilized the founding fathers. We need to choose their successors with greater care than we've so far and most recently exercised.
With bodies dropping all around us, I'm pleased to note that we're still able to get you a very favorable loan, probably find a buyer for your home, or help you find a home. All of those things take a little longer than we would like, and all of them are considerably more work, but if you're realistic and patient, we'll get you to your real estate goal.
As usual,
Thanks for visiting

Who Is Obama?

This link is to the best description of our President that I have yet read or heard. Additionally there is an opportunity to discover Imprimus, a free publication of Hillsdale College, and if you're a freedom lover, a great way to stay in touch with our value system. Go HERE.
We are witness to the greatest bunch of dithering idiots in our history, and it is costing all of us a great deal. The housing market, which is supposed to be my main concern, is still troubled, mainly because of government action and inaction, or inappropriate action. Foreclosures continue to plague the inventory, and no relief in sight. Mortgage rates are very favorable, but it's very tough to qualify for a loan for purchase or refinance. Possible certainly, but credit is severely restricted by lenders, mainly because they can make more money, more safely, by not loaning it on mortgages.
We have serious security issues with our porous borders, ignored by the federal government, a calamitous oil spill, ignored or mismanaged by the federal government, a health care bill which is now revealing itself as the disaster most of thought it was from the outset, and a group of clowns trying to swap jobs and favors in an attempt to control the outcome of elections. The list of course is much, much longer.
We are seeing some activity in home sales, but not much, and too much influenced by distress selling, foreclosures and short sales. If we could somehow induce the government to let market forces work we could get through this mess in a fairly short period, but the insistence by bureaucrats on forcing modification programs that are not working, giving seller credits to influence behavior, and generally messing with the financial markets has provided an effective bar to any short term recovery.
Does anyone remember a very old commercial in which a mother insists on advising and "helping" her daughter in some kitchen activity until finally the daughter says "Mother, I'd rather do it myself!"? Well politicians, we'd rather do it ourselves.
As usual,
Thanks for visiting.

Could Things Be Worse?

Usually if you scan the horizon it's possible to find something cheerful to lighten the mood, but boy oh boy, the pickings are really slim now. In real estate, the downward slide continues, foreclosures are a continuing problem, modifications have proven to be expensive and ineffective for the most part, and even though mortgage rates are very low, getting a loan is very difficult. The tax credit much like the "cash for clunkers" program, has siphoned of future sales and new mortgage purchase applications are down to 1997 levels. The stock market took a 300+ point dive today, stripping enormous value from 401K accounts and generally reflecting the malaise of the country.
We have been the strong protector of the entire world because of our financial and military strength, and our devotion to protecting human rights as a reflection of our own ideals. We now have a regime in Washington that insults our friends, bows to our enemies, and demonstrates weakness and indecisiveness with every challenge, whether an oil spill, saber rattling by North Korea or Iran, an economy in shambles brought about largely by failed government policies. The consequence of this demonstrated weakness of purpose is a stepped up testing of our resolve by everyone on the planet. Even the President of Mexico and an aging Beatle feel free to insult us publicly. The Chicago thugs were able to get this guy elected, but nothing is going to teach him, or them, how to govern. November is a long way off, but we absolutely must begin the process of restoring some semblance of sanity and fiscal responsibility to all levels of government, and if we can't teach some leadership skills to the President, we must at the very least change the disastrous course he's set us upon. ( I know that's a preposition.)
As usual,
thanks for stopping by.