Home sales decreased only 3.6 percent in December 2008 over December 2007 compared to a decrease of 20.5% from November 2008 to November 2007 indicating that the "slippery bottom" described in previous reports is alive and well. While one month of improvement does not signal the end of the housing recession, it does indicate that despite [...]
Mortgage rates continue to drop, and some of the nation's largest banks are offering loans below 5 percent. Chase Bank advertised a 4.75 percent 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage, Wells Fargo's rate was 4.875 percent, and Bank of America was at 5 percent on their Web sites recently. The rates are for borrowers who have a 20 percent down payment [...]
Those of us fortunate enough to live in Williamstown are really rather reluctant to tell too many people about it because, well, we like it like this. Everyone knows how beautiful Martha's Vineyard and Block Island are, how swanky the Hamptons are, how upscale Newport is, and just how crowded and expensive they all are but well, again, we [...]
The recently unsuccessful vice presidential candidate added a memorable phrase to our repertoire but like her bid for office, the rallying cry for rampant oil exploration missed the [...]
In the go go '90's mortgage brokers were writing an ever increasing percentage of loans, taking business away from the traditional lenders, the banks and S & L's. Many of us well remember the so called S & L crisis from the 70's when there were unfortunate abuses taking place that sank some major S & L's, principally in the west and [...]
Traditionally, buyers in the northeast are pretty scarce from the beginning of November until around mid February. Why? Weather, job cycles, holidays. Some years have seen exceptions such as the winter of '04-'05 and one or two winters during my 34 year career but those are rare. Much more common are the slow winter months when buyers, like [...]
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