The 400 people charged as of date by the FBI in mortgage fraud has totaled over $1 billion in losses. GM alone reported a quarterly loss of $15 billion- more than the market value of the company. Freddie Mac lost $821 million in the 2nd quarter (might as well round that to a billion) . I think my point is….is the BILLION the new MILLION? What is going on? Lets see, a billion is 000,000,000 – that is 9 zeros. Can you fathom that amount? How are any of these companies going to recover? Or are we all so used to hearing the B word now, that its no big deal?
Gas prices fell 20 days in a row. That is refreshing. Down more than 25 cents /gallon from the record high.
Fed left the rates unchanged. Refreshing? For some maybe. It will keep the cost of money for banks and borrowers (short term credit) lower. But the reason is that they are admitting to inflation fears and a slowdown. The fed typically will lower rates to spur spending by consumers, and raise rates when concerned about inflation.
Russia bombed Georgia (the country, not the US State) today. Now that sent the market rallying. Who knows where that will lead us. Just put them in the same category as Iraq and Iran now. Problems that we will be dealing with. The markets could go either way.
Oh, and Lenders fear a bigger waive of loan defaults, according to the NY Times. A growing number of homeowners are falling behind on their payments.
Now for some GREAT news! Texas represents 43% of the job growth in the nation! And Houston is 17% of that! Yee ha! My consensus for the week is not to float rates if you are buying a home. Don’t gamble. Lock em’ as soon as you can. Anything can happen tomorrow.
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