JohnsBlog (articles, news, thoughts, advice)

The Italian Festival in Wilmington wraps up this Sunday.  There's a $5 admission but anyone going to be around the area and not at the beach may want to check it out.  The music's good, the food's good, and the crowd's usually good.   From what I hear the weather is also supposed to be nice this weekend, so it might be a nice day out for some food, drinks, and music.  Get there early though or expect to have some trouble finding parking spots.

I will be updating the site around months end to make it hopefully more accessible and useful as well as easier to navigate for everyone.  Any suggestions are welcome, but there will be access to my preferred partners, as well as easier and more aesthetic navigation. 

Hope everyone enjoys

After nearly a year of rate cuts, declining mortgage rates, and a housing market collapse, there is some speculation that Federal rates may be on the rise in the near future.  This comes on the heels of absurdly high gas prices and an ever-weakening US dollar.

This could mean that amidst an already horrific credit crunch, credit rates could rise for a lot of consumers, increasing their monthly payments as well.  Also, home equity loan payments will go up, in some cases making it more difficult to qualify borderline applicants who are borderline due to high debt to income ratios. 

On a bright note, this move would also strengthen the USD, potentially bringing down gas prices which would be some nice burden relief, especially to those with lengthy commutes.

Only time will tell, but it shouldn't be too much longer before the rates once again begin to climb...hopefully they'll stay at a respectable level for a while though, as the 8.25% prime rate we saw last September wasn't too helpful to many people compared to the 5% we're seeing today.

Gas prices should be going...down?  Yep, good old Bernanke spoke today about future rate drops being unlikely, and with the recent mention of inflationary fears, crude oil has been coming down in price...down more than $10 since it's high of more than $135 May 22.  With this decrease, prices at the pump should fall as well soon.

Good work on the publics part...demand was down 6% from last year this prior week, so with less demand obviously there will be more supply, and if the oil execs are telling the truth about supply and demand driving prices (yeah...right) we should see the reaction resulting in a decline...what a relief that would be...especially in the summer months. 

Keep eliminating unecessary trips, drive closer to the speed limit, and use your AC sparingly if necessary, and if everyone does this, hopefully we'll have a little more cash in our pockets!