Team Thayer Property Servicing

Markets are bubbling! S tocks were surging, Treasuries posted modest gains in a bond market that benefited from investors' cautious tone approaching this week's Fed meeting. The FNMA 3.5% bond we watch ended the week up .09, to $98.30.  Fannie Mae reported that consumers polled in August anticipate home prices to go up  3.4% in the next 12 months but  I predict we will see 2% in 12 but we will see little of that  until Jan. 15 . We are plaining right now a bit and the natural slow season is setting in!   (CPI)  for August is forecast to show inflation at bay. These numbers are skewed folks. You want to track inflation. Take the same candy bar in the same store every 6 months and measure the inflation rate! That is an easy number to check! It's affecting you here & now! The truth is never a good as the cooperate sponsored economic entertainment on television. I may be an armature economist but at not I providing en...

  New Home Sales were reported down 13.4% in July to a 394,000 unit annual rate, well below consensus expectations. We are  still on an upward trend, with new home sales up 6.8% and the median new home price up 8.3% versus a year ago.   Existing Home Sales grew 6.5% in July,  at a 5.39 million annual rate . That's  the strongest pace since November 2009, and sales are now up 17.2% from a year ago.  The median price dipped slightly, but is still up 13.7% versus a year ago. It was great to see sales up in all regions of the country, with single family homes leading the way, although condo/coop sales also gained.  The FHFA index of prices for homes financed by conforming mortgages gained 0.6% in June and is up 7.8% in the past year.     Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey  showed  average fixed mortgage rates edging higher   for the week ending August 22 . Remember, mortgage rates can be extremely volatile, so check w...

U.S. businesses are hiring at a robust rate. The only problem is that three out of four of the nearly 1 million hires this year are part-time and many of the jobs are low-paid. Faltering economic growth at home and abroad and concern that President  Barack Obama's  signature health care law will drive up business costs are behind the wariness about taking on full-time staff, executives at staffing and payroll firms say. Employers say part-timers offer them flexibility. If the economy picks up, they can quickly offer full-time work. If orders dry up, they know costs are under control. It also helps them to curb costs they might face under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. This can all become a less-than-virtuous cycle as new employees, who are mainly in lower wage businesses such as retail and food services, do not have the disposable income to drive demand for goods and services. Employers say part-timers offer them flexibility. If the economy picks up, ...