The NBC Today Show recently ran a Home Staging series that’s worth watching. Hosted by Barbara Corcoran, the trio of 5-minute pieces resemble HGTV Reality Shows but carry much more insight and “everyday tips” that ordinary folks can use.

The video clip above is look at a home on Long Island that, as Barbara called it, is “the worst house on the block”. You can’t help but feel bad for the agent whose name is on the For Sale sign.

Of course, the story has a happy ending — the home is now under contract.

Watch all three home staging clips via YouTube:

• Home staging with a $100 budget
• Home staging with a $500 budget
• Home staging with a $5,000 budget (see clip above)

“People don’t want to put the money in,” Barbara says. “They’re thinking about taking the money out.”

This series of videos shows how that line of thinking can actually reduce your profits.

Is “news” always news, or is it masked opinion?

When doing research on mortgages, it’s important to pay attention to the objectivity of your research source.

Often, a writer will deploy key adjectives, phrases, and/or images that distort an otherwise factual story.

This cartoon from clangnuts.com is a terrific example.

It implies that interest only home loans are for people that can’t otherwise afford homeownership.

The truth is that interest only loans are used by all economic classes of homeowners — not just those that need payment relief.

Many people choose interest only home loans for their flexibility, or as a financial planning tool.

Sure, there are some people that use interest only loans to “get onto the housing ladder”, but that is a statement about the homeowner and not the mortgage product.

Our opinions are often formed by the words and images we hear in a public forum. Sometimes, it pays to look a little deeper.

It was another favorable day for mortgage rates yesterday as average housing data and momentum trading carried bond prices higher.

Bond prices up, mortgage rates down, of course.

All things considered, mortgage bonds should not have moved as much as they did. But, this is the summer season and in the summer, fewer traders show up for work.

Especially during a week like this one in which there is no major data release.

With fewer traders participating, there are fewer bond buyers to match with sellers, and fewer bond sellers to match with buyers.

Therefore, it is much less likely that a person who wants to buy at a certain price will find somebody who wants to sell at a certain price. Therefore, mortgage bonds (and interest rates) tend to move a lot more sharply during the summer than we’re otherwise used to seeing.

Today, three Fed presidents take the stump: Janet Yellen (San Francisco), Timothy Geithner (New York), and Richard Fisher (Dallas). Markets will listen to the Fed speaker for clues inflation and the economy.

If the speakers indicate worry over inflation, mortgage rates will rise in response.

For those that spend a lot of time in their car, this is old news.

Since Memorial Day weekend when gas prices touched $3.24/gallon nationally, the cost of filling up dipped below $3.00. According to Gas Buddy, Monday’s average cost per gallon was $2.995.

Despite the dip, gas prices are still much higher for late-June than in years prior.

2002: approximately $1.40/gallon
2003: approximately $1.48/gallon
2004: approximately $1.92/gallon
2005: approximately $2.14/gallon
2006: approximately $2.82/gallon
2007: approximately $2.99/gallon

Gas prices change quickly and those changes can be attributable to the price of crude oil, increased demand for gas from road travelers (i.e. summer road trips), or an interruption in the overall production (i.e. supply) of Gulf Coast refineries or from crude oil sources.

Since 2002, all three factors have contributed to the increased cost of gasoline. Over the past three weeks, though, we’ve all gotten a break.