While the Realtors and Home Builders and Mortgage Bankers all bask in the glow of the home buyer tax credit extension/expansion, we all need to turn our attention to the real drag on a housing recovery: Foreclosures.    Read More

S&P Futures dropped about 10 points as the October Unemployment rate hit 10.2 percent, the highest since April 1983. While this will be the headline in the papers, bear in mind that unemployment in the 1982 recession peaked at 10.8 percent at the end of 1982.    Read More

Yep, thanks to a new program announced by the nation's largest owner of home loans, Fannie Mae, troubled borrowers can sign over the deed of their homes and rent back for the current market rate.   Read More

Warren Buffett tells CNBC's Becky Quick that Berkshire Hathaway has talked to five big financial firms about buying their tax credits.  Buffett says he can't name any names due to confidentiality agreements, but notes that Berkshire has been buying tax credits since 1990 and will continue to do so in the future.   Read More

The close on Friday, a big earnings day, was less than stellar. Volume was poor, and two stocks were down for every one that advanced.    Read More

It's my favorite time of year again. The air is crispy, the leaves are crackly, and the mortgage bankers are crunching numbers once more at their annual convention here in San Diego.    Read More

Several months ago on the blog we discussed the predicament small independent lenders are in because they are no longer able to access the cash to make their loans. That is because warehouse lending has dried up considerably. That leaves the big banks to get most of the share of the mortgage market.   Read More

If you were one of the people who “gave up” and sold stocks in the gloom of last winter, you may be feeling a little foolish these days. But the real question is: What will you do during the next decline?    Read More

The argument that the market advanced on merger news is silly: the important point is that the market has bounced at least three times on the modest 2 to 4 percent pullbacks that we have seen since June, so it is simply continuing a trend.    Read More

Just how will this equity rally end? Pundit after pundit says a correction is coming anytime now, but what will be the final sign of this top?   Read More