Tag: market predictions
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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Zombie Stocks and an Uncertain Future
The fortunes of quasi-governmental mortgage superlenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have swooped from post-housing collapse bailout projects to a hot stock option – and back down again. As stock prices for both agencies reached gains of up to 150 percent, only to fall by 40 percent a day or so later, financial experts are…
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Green Homes Mean Greenbacks
Green is still in. More and more businesses large and small are jumping on the bandwagon of environmentally friendly products, services and community planning initiatives. And now, the demand for energy saving features and earth-sensitive practices appears to be providing a not-insignificant boost to the recovering housing market: green homes command not just higher purchase…
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College Degrees: A Waste of Four Years?
Is a college degree worth the cost? According to a new survey reported by Forbes, a majority of “millennials” – new and recent college grads – say no. They wish they’d worked and saved instead. And as spiraling student loan debt takes a toll on Hot enough company They was bought limited canadian pharmacy pyrithione…
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Job Growth Changes Bond Buyup Plans
In a recent series of intermittent posts on the Federal Reserve’s massive buyup of mortgage backed securities, we’ve been following the plan’s fast forward/slo-mo progress in response to the ebb and flow of activity in various sectors of the economy, particularly housing. Now, just after some regional Fed presidents voiced concerns over the scope of…
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Can Rising Home Prices Signal Another Housing Collapse?
Everything old is new again. For many financial analysts and real estate experts, that old saying may explain fears that the stars are aligning for another housing collapse, thanks to current trends in the market that echo all too clearly the signs that led to the last one. Along with the reappearance of a variety…
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Mixed Messages on the Fed’s Securities Buyup
Since it began in the fall of 2012, the Federal Reserve’s large-scale plan to buy up billions of dollars in mortgage backed securities every month to stimulate the housing recovery has waxed and waned, depending on the health of the market. Now, as the program rolls on with no end point in sight, some senior…
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Are Major Banks Choking the Housing Recovery?
After the string of lawsuits, settlements and legislative actions related to lax and fraudulent mortgage and foreclosure practices, the nations major lenders are taking a new stand. With stricter lending standards, more transparency and better accountability, these institutions attempt to forestall another mortgage meltdown like the one that created the great housing collapse. But, some…
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Can Owning a Home Hurt Economic Growth?
For decades, the “American Dream” of owning a home has created some of the most enduring icons of the culture: white picket fences and happy children playing in a well kept yard, serene old couples rocking on a porch. But a new study by two university economists casts a disturbing shadow over that dream. High…
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More Apologies from the Fed to Mortgage Settlement Victims
Rust Consulting isn’t exactly a household name – but for many victims of the robosigning scandal of 2009-2010, it may become a dirty word. Yet another apology issued by the Federal Reserve for Ruts’ handling – or mishandling – of settlement checks issued this year highlights the private firm’s “errors” involving bounced checks, short checks…
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Another Housing Bubble? Maybe Not
The housing market is springing back, and that has some housing industry observers looking for a downside. And now, with memories of the recent housing collapse still relatively fresh, some financial and housing experts are finding signs of another one looming on the horizon of rising home prices, short supply and increased demand. But although…