June’s Consumer Price Index showed a 5 percent year-over-year increase in what is now the largest annual Cost of Living increase for Americans in 17 years.

This is bad news for active home buyers because rising costs are considered inflationary and inflation causes mortgage rates to increase.

Predictably, mortgage rates jumped Wednesday [...]

In this two-and-a-half minute video from Expert Village, nurseryman Scott Reil tells us:

Why weeding is important How to weed with efficiency at home How to use mulch as a weed-retardant

There are two basic ways to weed a garden, according to our video host — you can use your [...]

Investors have turned their attention back to the U.S. economy this morning, causing yesterday’s mortgage rate improvements to unwind a bit.

Rates had fallen Monday after the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury’s joint announcement in support of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Today, it’s the data that is taking center stage.

Most [...]

Every city in America is its own micro-economy. Jobs pay differently from place-to-place and the Cost of Living varies, too.

Knowing that, Business Week followed a simple, three-step methodology to determine the “Best And Worst Cities For Your Job“.

Choose 20 common professions for Americans Research what the professions pay in [...]

“Economic uncertainty” is turning into a 2008 buzzword and there’s a lot of good reasons why.

On the one hand, there are precursors to inflation in the economy:

Rising oil costs Rising food prices Higher Cost of Living

On the other hand, there are precursors to recession in the economy, too:

Mounting job losses Less [...]

According to RealtyTrac, the rate of foreclosures across the U.S. is slowing. Versus May, June foreclosures fell at a 3 percent clip.

25 states showed improvement month-over-month, led by many of the same areas that had fueled foreclosure activity in 2007.

A sampling of RealtyTrac’s data includes:

California : Foreclosures down [...]

A noon-hour, mortgage-bond rally rendered homes more affordable for Americans Tuesday. It was the second straight day on which this happened.

On both days, the action was swift.

The speed at which Monday’s and Tuesday’s respective rallies tore through mortgage markets illustrates how deep the uncertainty that surrounds the U.S. economy really is.

[...]

It’s a terrific time to buy a home, but not because homes happen to be affordable.

It’s a terrific time to buy because the variety of mortgage products available to home buyers looks poised to shrink.

Monday, Alt-A mortgage lender IndyMac Bank stopped accepting mortgage applications and it’s likely that other [...]

Last week, Forbes Magazine published a Top 10 list that should grab the attention of housing market bottom-feeders.

The Top 10 list of Increasingly Affordable U.S. Housing Markets shows that falling home prices and steady mortgage rates are providing a support floor in some of the country’s most beat-up regions.

The report’s [...]

On the first Friday of each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its Non-Farm Payrolls report.

More commonly, it’s called the “jobs report”.

The jobs report is a sector-by-sector look into the U.S. economy and whether businesses are hiring — or firing — workers. This is one of the reasons why its release [...]