C21AGVoices

Another day, another piece of inflationary data. June’s Consumer Price Index showed a 5 percent year-over-year increase in what is now the largest annual Cost of Living increase for Americans in 17 years. This is bad news for active home buyers because rising costs are considered inflationary and inflation causes mortgage rates to increase. Predictably, […]

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Photo by Chris Bernard Courtesy of Creativecommons.org That’s the magic question. Wouldn’t it be nice to know when the stock market was about to rebound? Most of us would probably buy, buy, buy and watch the values rise as others say I should have purchased at those rock bottom prices! The problem here is that […]

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Investors have turned their attention back to the U.S. economy this morning, causing yesterday’s mortgage rate improvements to unwind a bit. Rates had fallen Monday after the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury’s joint announcement in support of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Tuesday, it’s the data that was taking center stage. Most notably, the U.S. […]

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“Economic uncertainty” is turning into a 2008 buzzword and there’s a lot of good reasons why. On the one hand, there are precursors to inflation in the economy: Rising oil costs Rising food prices Higher Cost of Living On the other hand, there are precursors to recession in the economy, too: Mounting job losses Less […]

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Picture courtesy of ResPres   My niece Beth,who is considering purchasing her first home recently asked me…”Can you refer me to a mortgage company who can tell me how much I can afford to spend on a home?” I believe that it is at this stage where most of the purchase mistakes are made. Beth like […]

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Okay, maybe I am overly focused on food, but it happens to be a community magnet, so maybe I’m not the only one. After telling you about the Glenside Farmer’s Market last week, I couldn’t help but think about another community staple, this one in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia. (What is it about […]

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Photo from creativecommons.org courtesy of Baum5651 2008 was my second year coordinating our Walk With Me team. Starting in April and continuing until the week of the event agents, family and friends showed their support by joining and sponsoring the Advantage Gold Team. Thanks to every one’s efforts our team raised over $4,000. The event took […]

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Last week, Forbes Magazine published a Top 10 list that should grab the attention of housing market bottom-feeders. The Top 10 list of Increasingly Affordable U.S. Housing Markets shows that falling home prices and steady mortgage rates are providing a support floor in some of the country’s most beat-up regions. The report’s methodology is simple: Take […]

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It’s a terrific time to buy a home, but not because homes happen to be affordable, or because values in Philadelphia are maintaining a positive direction. It’s a terrific time to buy because the variety of mortgage products available to home buyers looks poised to shrink. Monday, Alt-A mortgage lender IndyMac Bank stopped accepting mortgage applications […]

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On the first Friday of each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its Non-Farm Payrolls report. More commonly, it’s called the “jobs report”. The jobs report is a sector-by-sector look into the U.S. economy and whether businesses are hiring — or firing — workers. This is one of the reasons why its release is […]

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