A Tale of Two Incomes - Income Inequality and Homeownership
By
Mark Fleming on February 9, 2016
Aristotle said, “The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.” While people are naturally drawn to the idea of an equal society, the truth of the matter is that it is quite rare, sometimes seemingly impossible. The question is determining when inequality has gone too far, and by what standards of measurement.
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Fear the Boom and the Bust: A Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem
By
Mark Fleming on February 4, 2016
In case you hadn’t heard last week, a Twitter debate exploded between the well-known rapper B.o.B and the also, although possibly not equally, well-known astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. The debate centered on B.o.B’s belief that the world is actually flat and Tyson’s scientifically reasoned explanation of how we know the world is actually ...
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Mortgage Defect and Fraud Risk Declining in Super Tuesday States
By
FirstAm Editor on February 3, 2016
We’ve posted the January First American Loan Application Defect Index, which estimates the frequency of defects, fraudulence and misrepresentation in the information submitted in mortgage loan applications. The index remained unchanged in January as compared with December and decreased by 5.0 percent as compared with January 2015. The Defect Index ...
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Is China Keeping U.S. Mortgage Rates at Historic Lows?
By
Mark Fleming on February 2, 2016
In December 2015, the Federal Reserve raised the target range for the federal funds rate for the first time in almost a decade. At the time, there was much discussion regarding the impact this move would have on the still burgeoning housing recovery, specifically through higher mortgage rates and an increased cost of borrowing. Initially, it ...
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Mortgage fraud and misrepresentation risk very low in Iowa
By
FirstAm Editor on January 28, 2016
We’ve posted the December First American Loan Application Defect Index, which estimates the frequency of defects, fraudulence and misrepresentation in the information submitted in mortgage loan applications. Overall, the index fell 2.6 percent in December as compared with November and decreased by 8.4 percent as compared with December 2014.
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The Persistent REO
By
Mark Fleming on January 21, 2016
In November 2015, real-estate-owned (REO) sales as a share of all residential home sales remained steady on a month-to-month basis, moving up slightly to 8.2 percent from 8.0 percent in October on a non-seasonally adjusted basis. On a year-over-year basis, this was a decrease of 1.2 percentage points when compared to November 2014, which had an ...
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