Consumers continue to spend. No category saw a decline. Food Services up 7.2%, Motor Vehicle and parts dealers up 5.9%, Furniture and home furnishings stores increase 4.4%.

Recap: Consumer spending makes up about two-thirds of all economic activity in the U.S.. The purpose of the Fed rate hikes are to reduce demand as supply tries to catch up. I am sure Jerome Powell is scratching his head thinking, what to do what to do.

The bond market yield continues to go up and that is not good for rates.

There is only 33 more days until Spring. Hang in there.

If the Bond Market truly loved me, it would not be misbehaving.

The January (CPI) Consumer Price Index showed overall inflation increased 0.5% but Y/Y only declined from 6.5% to 6.4%. Not what we expected.

Digging deeper, Used car prices went down 1.9% but energy prices went up 1.9%. Shelter contributed by far the most with a rise by 0.7% to 7.9%.

Bottom line is we are not out of the woods yet.

Have a fantastic rest of your week.

Words are important, words convey meaning and intent, but words can be confusing.

When you purchase a home you are inundated with documents; contract, addendums, loan disclosures, Title report and the home inspection.

We are the professionals traveling at 100 miles an hour on a train and expect the borrower to run at our speed. We have to slow down and let them on.

Flammable and Inflammable mean the same thing.

Have a great week and always feel free to reach out.

Its Friday, I’m going to keep this light…

Pig-Pen may be Patty’s Jungian Shadow. the dark side of the fifties suburban ideal. In 1956, Charlie Brown describes Pig-Pen as “the only person I know who can raise a cloud of dust on a clean sidewalk.” It’s a subtly disorienting moment.

If the sidewalk was clean… where did the dust come from? In 1956, Pig-Pen is describes as “a Human Soil Bank”. Part of the Agricultural Act of 1956, the Soil Bank incentivized farmers, threatened by drought and manufacturing boom, to remove farmland from production. – Elif Batuman

You woke up this morning wondering, what am I going to learn today. Well I solved that for you.

Lock-em if you Got-em. Bond Market is not cooperating this week. Though I’m sad, I will not allow the Bond market to define who I am.

Oh and I had to look up what Jungian meant. Interesting read.

Corelogic Home Price Index released their Home Price Index for December. Down .4% but up 6.9% from this time last year. January forecast decline .2% but expect a 3% increase in the next year.

I had a conversation with a client that wanted to wait until the market dropped. I don’t see any indication that will happen anytime soon.

Inventory is one of the driving forces or lack there of.

have a great rest of the week, we are half way through…

The Jobs report is a tricky one. 517k new jobs in December, 50 year low unemployment, what to do, what to do.

The Fed Chair Jerome Powell will be speaking between 12:30est and 1pm est. The market is watching this closely to see what he says about the jobs report.

There were more full-time jobs last May than there are today. Let that sink in a bit. Not one full time job has been created in net over that time span. Layoffs are not always a bad thing except if you are the one being laid off. It allows companies to trim the fat so to speak. Lean and Mean.

Have a great week and always reach out if you have any questions.

The housing market is difficult to predict when all the trusted sources are saying something different.

The bottom line is there are more qualified buyers searching for homes than there are properties for sale. When I played Volleyball and was ready to block a shot, I didn’t look at their arms flailing around. I looked at their core and when that moved I moved.

An interesting side note. “93% of borrowers who are in foreclosure today actually have positive equity in their Homes,…” – Rick Sharga real estate data company ATTOM (not to be confused with my headline).

Make it a Fantastic week.

In the credit world inheriting a revolving account is even better. You get the immediate benefit of all the history without the complications.

Credit can be the difference between buying a home and renting. Before you start messing with your credit, talk to one of us so we can help you understand the impact of paying off a debt opposed to paying it down. As a lender have seen it all and understand how critical credit can be.

Have a great weekend. We are always here to help.

Disinflation. That’s a word we haven’t heard in a long time.

dis·in·fla·tion /ˌdisənˈflāSH(ə)n/ The reduction in the rate of inflation. But let’s not confuse this with deflation.

de·fla·tion /dəˈflāSH(ə)n/ Is the general decline in prices for goods and services.

To be clear, prices are still going up, just at a slower pace. This tends to have less harm to the economy and may indicate a softer landing for a recession.

Schools out, go have fun at recess and enjoy the rest of your week.