By: Fred Arnold

Sunday is Cinco de Mayo, hence the real-life, true, yes, true, well kind of true tale at the end of the paragraph. Anyway, Sunday celebrates the legendary Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, in which a Mexican force of 4,500 men faced 6,000 well-trained French soldiers. The battle lasted four hours and ended in a victory for the Mexican army under Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza. Cinco de Mayo has become a time to celebrate Mexican heritage and culture.

Most people don't know that in 1912, Hellmann's mayonnaise was manufactured in England. In fact, the Titanic was carrying 12,000 jars of the condiment scheduled for delivery in Vera Cruz, Mexico, which was to have been the next port of call for the great ship after its stop in New York.
This would have been the largest single shipment of mayonnaise ever delivered to Mexico. But as we know, the great ship did not make it to New York. The ship hit an iceberg and sank, and the cargo was lost forever.

As your mortgage professional, Fred Arnold is happy to assist you with any information you may need regarding mortgage or real estate information. Fred Arnold welcomes the opportunity to serve you in any way he possibly can, 661-505-4300.

It appears that the stock market rally that we have been experiencing over the last month has lost some of its momentum.  For the week, the market has remained in a fairly narrow range of plus or minus 100 points.  The media loves to sensationalize events so you will hear on some days that the market has hit new record highs.  However, when you look at the numbers you will see that the records being achieved are coming from minimal gains in the markets.

By: FRED ARNOLD

Q: How do you know when the stock market is volatile & unstable? A: The morning bell is rung by Britney Spears!

Go Figure! The housing market index to almost everyone’s surprise turned lower for the second straight month. The issue seems to be more about builders having difficulty locating available lots to build and a lack of credit for new home construction than buyer demand. The positive side to the report is that although present conditions seem challenging for builders, sales traffic seems to be quite robust and shows no signs of slowing down.Housing starts made a partial comeback in February; however, what many consider important for the future is that housing permits made a significant gain. Housing starts in February rebounded 0.8 percent, after they had dropped 7.3 percent in January. The report also reinforces that the market is in a much better place than a year ago as housing starts are up a whopping 27.7 percent from the same time last year. Housing permits continue on an upward trend increasing by 4.6 percent.