Greg Anthony

Mortgage bonds are starting a little slow this morning; after 3 straight days of hard losses stock are attempting a rally drawing investment dollars out of bonds. The positive start for stocks seems a little counter intuitive considering all the bad economic news. Between lower future earnings guidance from Wal-Mart and Intel and the worst initial unemployment claims data since 2001; it will be interesting to see if Stock can hold up today.

Keep in mind at 10 Pacific the treasury is auctioning $10 Billion in 30-year Treasury Bonds. If this auction doesn't go well we might see mortgage bonds suffer later this today.

As always please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Have a great day!

Greg Anthony CMPS

Knowledge (In Real Estate) Is Power.

We have probably all heard the saying, "knowledge is power." We can even add a little more to the saying when it comes to Real Estate by suggesting that ‘knowledge in Real Estate is power.' Let me dispel a piece of this saying for just one second.

It is not the knowledge that is power; it is what you do with that knowledge that is the true power.

We are bombarded with media messages about Real Estate every day. Typically, the messages give us basic information. We especially see media coverage dramatizing a ‘sky is falling' effect. But is it really?

Here is where knowledge, and what we do with it, comes into play.

The more educated we become about real estate, mortgage loans, and our markets, we can cut through the muck we see and read in the news and get the real scoop.

We can determine from specific data and education whether it is really a good time to buy property in our market, or to refinance our loan.

Are foreclosures slowing down in my area?

http://www.dqnews.com/News/California/CA-Foreclosures/RRFor081023.aspx.

Are sales increasing?

Is it better to pay more toward your credit card or your mortgage?

Do I consolidate my first and second mortgages right now?

In many cases we need a mortgage professional to help analyze this data and come to a conclusion. However, doing our own research and educating ourselves is knowledge that when utilized can give us the true picture and make rational decisions.

Here are some good websites to help arm you with knowledge:

www.dataquick.com

www.bankrate.com

http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/real-estate.

Frankie Frederick

Marketing Manager for Greg Anthony CMPS

www.greganthonycmps.com

Watching the stocks plummet and the housing market sink is not exactly heartening news to most of us. However, there may be a silver lining to the economic downturn we are currently experiencing.

Some economic and investing experts in the media tout that the silver lining is that we are able to buy houses and stocks for bargain prices. While that may be the case, most of us probably do not know when the bottom will be, much less when stocks and housing will recover and start moving on an extended upward trend. I don't know about you, but I'm no Warren Buffet.

The silver lining I am talking about is education; the type of education that takes us deeper into understanding how our finances, credit and overall economics work. When things are good, it is easy to look past our budgets. It's easy to see ourselves continuing on the same path toward the "American Dream." Our jobs appear stable, we continue to pay our bills, get our gas (possibly grumble about the price a little) and have nice, restaurant dinners with our families.

The current credit crisis is our wake-up call. Even if we can watch the turmoil on television or read it in a newspaper and say, ‘that's not me'; it does not take much for it to become us. If we take a little more in depth look at our finances and educate ourselves more about our taxes, our mortgage, our credit and our budgets and really learn how they work, we can be one cog in the wheel of developing financial awareness that will help us through nearly any economic downturn.

Frankie Frederick - Marketing Manager

For Greg Anthony CMPS