The Fair Isaac Corporation rates personal creditworthiness of basically everyone using its FICO Score model. Our individual FICO Score factors into the pricing we receive on all of our borrowing, and most of the financial services we purchase. It is a critical driver in mortgage loan availability and interest rates for home buyers. In late January, Fair Isaac announced an update to their FICO Score model. The new credit scoring methodology will be available to
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This afternoon the Federal Reserve announced the next phase of their strategy to stimulate the economy. Broadly referred to as Quantitative Easing 2, the plan involves printing a whole lot of money in order to buy long-term US Treasury Bonds in the markets. The Fed’s big picture goal is to reduce unemployment, and hopes that injecting more money into the economy will encourage businesses to begin taking risks to expand their operations (hire more workers),
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Economists are divided as to the direction of the national housing market. Some believe that the environment is stabilizing and that prices will increase from here. Others see further price decreases once the government support fades away. Barry Ritholz is one economist we follow regularly, through his posts on The Big Picture blog. Right now, he has a strong negative view on the future of the US housing markets. One of yesterday’s posts broke down
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We’ve received a lot of questions recently about the soon-to-expire First Time Home Buyer’s Credit. Since the time has basically passed to be able to take advantage of it in a home purchase, the discussion has shifted to the future of the program. Analysts and commentators around the country are weighing in on the subject, dividing into two camps. Camp 1: Extend the credit, and perhaps even expand it to all buyers and with larger
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The financial markets are in a difficult place right now, and the Federal government is working on a plan to intervene and hopefully stop the bleeding. Rather than trying to figure out who’s to blame, or speculating on what might happen next, I’d like to try to illustrate the negative feedback loop currently in place. Some observations: 1. Mortgage-backed securities are valued using computer models with numerous assumptions. The historical data used to generate the
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