Apartment asking rents increased 2.8 percent last year according to Rents Marcus and Millichap while effective rents (after consideration of all discounts, giveaways and specials) jumped 4 percent.  At the same time, median U.S. home values declined 3.9 percent.  Marcus and Millichap expects 2012 to see… Read more

Yesterday I posted a link to an article about a presentation I gave to the Michigan Association of Realtors. Here is a link to a follow-up article on refinancing loans. Should we lower the interest rate for all homeowners current on their mortgage? – mlive.com

If Indeed "History May Not Repeat Itself But It Certainly Does Rhyme," by Mark Twain, is true, why would anyone today buy a 10-Year U.S. Treasury Yielding 1.92 percent today? The U.S. is poised to run a deficit in the 2011 fiscal year (which ended… Read more

July 2011 Existing Home Sales Up 21 Percent From July 2010 at 4.67 Million SAAR — But Were Down 3.5 Percent Sequentially From June 2011 — Median Price Down 4.4 Percent Year-Over-Year at $174,000 Year over year home sales rose 21 percent from July 2010… Read more

Standard & Poor's Throws the First Volley at the Record U.S. Deficit Cutting the Rating Outlook to Negative (but still maintaining the AAA Rating).  Stock Futures Drop 167 Points The act this morning by S&P will accelerate the increase in interest rates for all loans… Read more

That Results in a Forecast 30-Year Residential Rate of 6.43 Percent The Federal Reserve Bank System has two charges – to enable full employment and to control inflation.  One of their tools to accomplish these is the Federal Funds Rate.  The Fed Funds Rate is… Read more

America's most overvalued – and undervalued cities- CNN   Local Market Monitor released their annual analysis of housing markets across the country and tagged eight localities as overpriced (versus 37 in mid-2006) and 15 underpriced  (six in 2006).   This goes to again prove the… Read more

As the Federal Reserve commences a second round of quantitative easing (QEII), economists continue to debate whether or not the effect will be inflationary. There’s no need for further debate as far as the market is concerned, however, as interest rates are popping up significantly,… Read more

I wrote last month how a typical Japanese investor that had purchased a Two-Year Treasury Note lost more than 10 percent per year on their investment – see post from September 27th– and that the only way they would keep coming back and buying U.S…. Read more

And Gas Will Cost $5 per Gallon in the Next 36 to 48 Months Given The Fed Once Again Likely to Journey Down the Road of Quantitative An article in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday notes the falling value of the U.S. Dollar based… Read more