MemeMachineGo!

Mortgage rates rise to 3-month high :

It took 54 words for Alan Greenspan to send mortgage rates skyward. When Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, went to Congress Tuesday to deliver his semiannual economic report, mortgage rates had been tranquil for a week, edging downward slightly. Minutes after Greenspan opened his mouth, long-term rates blasted off the launch pad. The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose 22 basis points to 5.83 percent, according to the Bankrate.com national survey of large lenders.

I am so sorry for boring you all with this, but it his deep, personal importance to me right now.

In a Saturday Night Live skit, Mike Myers played Middle-Aged Man, who suddenly appeared in the bedroom of a couple where the man had just had an episode of impotence. Middle-Aged Man began dispensing advice. The man, resentful, said “You know what I think, Middle-Aged Man? I think it’s been so long since you had any, you can’t even remember what it’s like.”

“Maybe,” Middle-Aged Man replied. “But I know how escrow works.”

And, well, now I know how escrow works.

Pocahontas and I are scheduled to close on a house at the end of July, a different house than I talked about before . It’s very nice: three bedrooms, a garage, a basement, hardwood floors, a great kitchen. It’s spacious enough that there’s no reason to expect to outgrow it. I’m very excited about it.

And we’re getting very deeply into debt, and I very much preferred the rate we had locked in for the previous house to what we could get now.

Ah, well. Rates’re still much better than they’ve been at many points in the past 20 years…