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<p>Funny, B of A just raised my credit line. I suspect it's because I pay it off every month.</p> <p>I did however have another bank try to slip an extra fee in on me. My "no annual fee" card suddenly had an annual fee. </p>

Well, I happen to work at one of the banks, though I have nothing to do with mortgage or residential real estate. However, those people work in the same building. They discuss the market etc, at lunch. I'll give you a few likely reasons for what you are seeing. 1. The staff they had 6-12...

<p>Q: Are you smarter than the Fed?</p> <p>A: Did you predict a large drop in housing prices back in 2006? Did you say that rampant fraud in the mortgage industry would cause its own problems? Did you stay a renter despite having enough money to buy a house 2005-2006? </p> <p>Extra credit...

Just be thankful it's not a bill collector for child support. There are stunning stories of how easy it is to get stuck with a bill that belongs to someone else with the same name, and then have them come after your assets.

For a good academic discussion of housing as a consumption good and as a component of an investment porfolio, seehttp://www.socsci.uci.edu/~jkbrueck/course%20readings/flavin-yamashita.pdf "Simply by virtue of its magnitude, housing plays an important role in both the consumption bundle...

Ask your financial advisor, bank etc, about auction rate municipal bonds. Currently, many are paying surprisingly high rates for tax exempt investments. More than you would expect from treasury yields, CDs, or the indexes of muni yields.

<p>I was at Home Depot yesterday. They had to open a second return line because of one customer with a LOT of stuff. He appeared to be returning a house. Lots of lumber, rolls of carpet, a front door, bunches of nails and brackets.</p> <p>Maybe it was just a batch of improvements his...

<p>Why do realtors insist on the owners not being home during an open house? </p> <p>Why do so many realtors try to keep you from having any direct discussions with the owners, even if the realtor is in the room?</p>

<p>I just moved out from a large apartment complex. I was surprised to find that the nice items which I put next to the dumpster weren't taken by residents or the trash people.</p> <p>The staff came by. If they liked the file cabinet, light, etc., they took it in their cart to storage. It...

I am one of the major housing bears, still sticking with my forecast of late 2009 prices being 45% off of the 2006 peak in LA/OC. However, I've done some in-depth models of the effects, and in the long term it's not that bad. In order to counteract the overall negative effects of the...

Trooper, we've rented the house we liked. No need to buy it. Similar houses in the area are dropping by ~$20k per month.

Here is a shocking set of numbers for Malibu. 1. LATimes median home price numbers. Single family home prices $1.4 million in November, down 56.4% from a year ago. Condos were down 62.8%. http://www.dqnews.com/ZIPLAT.shtm 2. "There is bad housing news everywhere, but has it had an...

I know quite a bit about municipal bonds. I am very disappointed at both the media and the typical blogger's discussion of what bond insurer downgrades mean. Let me separate it out for you. It's not much of al problem for solvent munis. 1. Fixed rate bond that is already issued. Means...

I disagree with the author's assertion that borrowing costs are rising. They aren't. Borrowing costs are spreading. The highest-rated, most secure borowers are paying lower interest than a year ago. People, corporations, and municipalities with moderately good credit are paying somewhat...

If you look at the DRE site under license revocations, there aren't that many. With half a million licenses outstanding, it's surprising there aren't more. Most of the revocations are for criminal convictions.http://www.dre.ca.gov/pdf_docs/rebfall07.pdf Revoked license list starts on page 4...

<p>Fair Economist, both can be true. The Feds can be territorial. However, states can and have shut down fraudulent operations. Too little and too late. Here is an example, "</p> <p>State banking regulators shut down New England Merchants Corp. on Wednesday, charging that the Arlington...

"Since the Big Banks aren't taking the risks on their own balance sheets, why would anybody believe they have enough money for the back up financing, and that if they did, they would fork it over?" Don't put all of the banks in the same bucket. Some of them have done far less subprime than...

Avoid rush hour. Get much better mileage.

"As late as 2004, New York and other states - alarmed by a jump in subprime foreclosures and evidence of bad borrowing - tried to rein in subprime lenders. But they were blocked by the Bush Treasury Department, which ordered banks to ignore attempts to impose state controls on subprime lending"...

<p>It might work between spouses. All of the credit is in the name of the one with the highest FICO score, thus reducing the total cost to the couple.</p> <p> </p>