February 25, 2025 The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created by the Dodd-Frank Act in the wake of the financial crisis which spawned the Great Recession of 2008. Unlike the pandemic-induced recession of 2020, the recovery of the economy from the Great Recession was long and painful, especially within the real estate industry which is […]
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February 18, 2025 There is no doubt about the fact that higher interest rates are putting a cap on potential growth in the real estate market. Together with high housing prices, affordability has certainly been a major factor within the sector for a few years now. While you can understand market analysts and participants in […]
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February 11, 2025 By all rights, we should have seen extreme market volatility during the past several weeks. After all, we have a new President implementing many new initiatives – from back to the office for federal employees to a constant threat of tariffs toward various countries. Yet, the stock and bond markets have been […]
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February 4, 2025 The economic new year is now rolling along. While the markets await the anticipated results of the new Administration’s policies, the economy does not wait for anyone. Last week was the first big economic event of the year – a meeting of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee. Most were predicting a […]
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January 28, 2025 So, we added over two million jobs last year. That is good news, right? As we have been saying for a few years now, good economic news has now become bad news. How did more jobs for Americans become a bad thing? When the unemployment rate is low, consumers have more money […]
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January 7, 2025 A lot of interest rate watchers were very confused late last year. As was expected, in their last meeting of the year, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee lowered rates for the third time in 2024. But interest rates such as mortgages reacted instantly by increasing. How can that be? Doesn’t the […]
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December 31, 2024 We hope you all are having a great holiday season. With the new year we are always looking to bring the latest predictions concerning the real estate market and the general economy. Of course, this also comes with our annual warning – predictions are futile (adapted from Star Trek). No one can […]
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December 3, 2024 We have had so many months of jobs gains that the monthly employment report has held little intrigue lately. As a matter of fact, the ancillary numbers such as wage inflation have garnered more attention than the number of jobs gained in some circles. For at least one month, this is no […]
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November 26, 2024 The initial response to the President-elect’s victory was a huge Wall Street rally. Despite the fact that there were already significant gains in 2024, stock market indices reached new heights immediately after the election. The bond market? Not so much of a rally, despite the fact that the Federal Reserve lowered their […]
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