Don Grimes's (grimesd) Blog

Last week didn’t feature any housing-related news other than Freddie Mac’s weekly survey of mortgage interest rates. Reports on consumer credit, job openings and weekly jobless claims suggest that without some relief in the jobs market, Americans may be taking a “wait-and-see” stance toward buyi...

Last week was relatively calm due to the Labor Day Holiday on Monday providing little mortgage and housing related news. However, there were several positive indicators for overall economic conditions. Construction spending rose by 0.60 percent in July and surpassed economists’ expectations of 0...

Last week brought mixed economic news, but Leading Indicators released Thursday suggest that the U.S. economy is growing at a moderate rate. Mortgage rates for fixed rate loans were higher, but the average rate for a 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage was unchanged from the prior week. Weekly jobless ...

Last week wasn’t kind to stock market investors, but weekly jobless claims fell to an unexpected low of 320,000 new jobless claims filed, the lowest level in nearly six years. Here is a review of the major events of the week. Monday: The federal budget for July shows an increase in its deficit t...

Highlights of economic news from last week, include a survey of senior loan officers from U.S. and foreign banks doing business in the U.S. They indicated that banks were gradually easing lending standards for business and consumer loans, but viewed lending criteria for home loans as more restri...

The past week brought encouraging economic news from several sources. The FOMC statement indicated that the Federal Reserve has not set a date for rolling back its quantitative easing program and ADP reported more private sector jobs added than expected. While weekly jobless claims were fewer tha...

Last week brought a mixed bag of economic news, but most notably, average mortgage rates fell. New home sales surpassed expectations and consumer sentiment rose for July; these readings among others suggest that the economy continued to improve and that consumer confidence in the economy improve...

Last week saw a relatively quiet week due to the 4th of July holiday, but there were some housing-related developments: Monday: The Department of Commerce reported that overall construction spending increased by 0.50 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $874.9 billion. Resident...

The past week was active for economic news and mortgage rates. The aftermath of the Fed’s indication that it may start dialing back its multi-billion dollar monthly purchases of Treasury and mortgage backed securities has sent mortgage rates to record highs. If you’re thinking of buying a home, ...

Comments by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke after Wednesday’s FOMC meeting caused havoc in financial markets as investors anticipated the potential effects of any rollback of the Fed’s policy of quantitative easing (QE). Chairman Bernanke said that the Fed may begin reducing its $85 billion monthly pu...