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Massachusetts Borrows 1.27 Billion For Housing Fund
2008-06-01 13:00:00
Ah, a government and their lust to spend money is never quenched. Facing lower property taxes and declining prices, the state of Massachusetts has proudly borrowed 1,270,000,000 dollars to buy new homes for the housing commission and update previously existing housing stock. All this for affordable housing across a state where housing is becoming more affordable ...
More About: Boston , Housing , Affordable housing , Fund

Are Hurricane Prone Areas Losing Population Due To Fear Of Storms Or Housin
2008-05-31 12:44:00
Owning real estate in hurricane prone regions of the country has always had it’s risks. So after a particularly bad stretch of storms over the past few years one would expect the population to decline. And it has, by about 1 percent since 2000. Of course, according to the study by USA Today, the regions hardest ...
More About: South , Fear , Gulf Coast , Hurricane

50 Cent?s Long Island Home Burns Down - Was It Arson?
2008-05-31 12:33:00
The Dix Hills home of Rap star 50 Cent burned down in what investigators have deemed suspicious. The home was being lived in by Curtis Jackson’s (50 Cent’s real name) former girlfriend, his 10 year old son, and her family. What has raised the concern of investigators was that earlier this week a violent discussion broke ...
More About: Home , Island , Long Island , Long

Commmuting Pain Index - Los Angeles and Atlanta Lead The Way
2008-05-30 17:04:00
If you are looking to save your sanity and pocket book, or if you really hate traffic, here are the cities to stay away from. These cities share a high level of traffic combined with a spread out workforce. Long commutes are the norm and it is wearing on those who live there. IBM commissioned ...
More About: Los Angeles , Pain , Atlanta , Index , Lead

Patchwork Nation - A New Demographic Study Of The United States
2008-05-29 19:46:00
Patchwork Nation is a new initiative by the Christian Science Monitor to break the country into 11 demographic units by county that best represent the population that lives there. The report has been done primarily for political purposes but the implication for housing and real estate are also included in the report. These categories are: Boom ...
More About: United States , Study , United , States

Does It Have A Mouse? An Amazing Video on Where We Are Going?
2008-05-29 18:29:00
Does it have a mouse? That is the question that is sticking in my head after watching this video. It is about how our society is changing from one that has been trained to receive information and be entertained to one which will participate and interact. I want to thank Daniel Rothamel of the Real Estate ...
More About: Video , Amazing , Mouse

Realtors 30 Under 30 Announced
2008-05-29 16:50:00
I do not know about you, but when I was in my 20s I was always ready to go with new ideas. Just at that stage raw ambition and motivation were not enough sometimes to get me over the hump. However, the new crop of Realtor Magazine’s 30 Under 30 have the motivation and the ...
More About: Realtors , Real Estate

The Later The Subprime And Alt-A Loan, The Greater The Default Rate
2008-05-29 15:50:00
If you are looking for an indicator on who is defaulting on subprime and Alt-A loans, just see when they were written. A 2007 subprime loan has 26 percent chance of being in default. These are some disturbing numbers. Is it because there is no equity in these homes or were the borrowers at the bottom ...
More About: Real Estate , Loan , Subprime , Rate

DOJ and NAR Reach Settlement in Suit After Technology Has Moved Forward
2008-05-28 14:33:00
The long running lawsuit that the Department of Justice has brought against the National Association of Realtors has been settled. The big winners were the lawyers. What a surprise. The amazing thing about monopoly and governmental lawsuits against companies over the issues of technology is that by the time the slow gears of justice run ...
More About: Technology , Real Estate , Reach , Settlement , Suit

Harry Macklowe Sells GM Building (and others) For 3.9 Billion, Turns Over B
2008-05-28 14:20:00
Harry Macklowe, the New York City developer who is famous for his Houdini type escapes from impending doom, has sold the GM Building and 3 others to a group led by Mort Zuckerman. Macklowe was on the verge of bankruptcy when the shrinking credit market made it impossible for him to refinance some debt. As ...
More About: Real Estate , Harry , Billion

Burning Down The House or Torching Your Foreclosure
2008-05-27 19:33:00
Hold tight wait till the partys overHold tight were in for nasty weatherThere has got to be a wayBurning down the house (lyrics of the Talking Heads classic, Burning Down The House ) A report out of Memphis found that a new trend is emerging, burning down one home when it is in foreclosure. Out of the 148 residential arsons in the city, 20 are under foreclosure and 9 are suspicious are being investigated according to the report. This does make one think. The risk of going to jail for arson measured against saving ones credit rating and according to the report getting revenge. If you are reading this and think it is a good idea, think again. The penalties for arson and I would assume insurance fraud are much greater than having your credit dinged for a few years. 7 years bad credit or 7 years in jail. A no brainier in my mind. Experts say the motivation is revenge – or the chance to collect an insurance claim. But the lien-holder, in most cases the mortgage company, is who ...
More About: Foreclosure , The House

Case Shiller Analysis - When Was The Last Time Your City Was This Low
2008-05-27 17:14:00
The Case Shiller Report that was released today got me to thinking. The report was ablaze with how the sky is falling and the major media, and myself, jumped right through the hoop. It did get me to thinking. So I dug into the report and started looking at historical data. I wanted to see how affected markets were. Instead of looking a year out, I wanted to see when the markets were this low before. Of the cities that I could find, Cleveland’s home prices dropped the most, hitting their February, 2002 levels. Seattle has lost the least with homebuyers in June of 2006 still being on the plus side. Remember, these are the aggregate numbers, so personal experiences can be different. City March-08 Last Time This Low Atlanta 124.61 March, 2005 Boston 158.54 August, 2004 Chicago 150.35 January, 2005 Cleveland 106.42 February, 2002 Denver 127.43 February, 2004 Las Vegas 169...
More About: Analysis

Yikes! Case Shiller Report Shows 20 Largest Metro Areas Drop 14.1 Percent I
2008-05-27 15:24:00
The news today coming from the Case Shiller index is dismal as their top 20 metro areas dropped 14.1 percent and the top 10 metro areas fell 15 percent in March from the previous year. The numbers are rough folks, but going into the spring season the perspective on potential buyers may be even worse. We have long talked about the crowd psychology affecting purchases and this news will most likely make every buyer pause. And the news is big, look at the Drudge Report from this morning. Since most media people read Drudge expect this story to have legs and lead on a very slow news day across the evening news shows and tomorrows papers. Post from: The Real Estate Bloggers Yikes! Case Shiller Report Shows 20 Largest Metro Areas Drop 14.1 Percent In Quarter

Morgan Guarantee Ends Mortgage Insurance For Condos in Florida
2008-05-26 15:09:00
The largest mortgage reinsurance company, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., has decided to stop providing private mortgage insurance to condo owners in Florida starting June 1st. While others will continue to provide the service this is still fairly big news. The company lost 1.4 billion in the 4th quarter last year and is trying to get ...
More About: Mortgage Fraud , Foreclosure

Mortgage Guaranty Ends Mortgage Insurance For Condos in Florida
2008-05-26 15:09:00
The largest mortgage reinsurance company, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., has decided to stop providing private mortgage insurance to condo owners in Florida starting June 1st. While others will continue to provide the service this is still fairly big news. The company lost 1.4 billion in the 4th quarter last year and is trying to get out of those markets where it has a great exposure. The condo market for most parts of Florida are taking a beating with depreciation and foreclosures. The company has recognized they had to stop investing in it. Of course, it crossed my mind why they finally figured it out now as we are nearing the bottom. Anyone watching the market in 2006 could have told you that condo prices were on the down swing and that mortgage insurance in the state of Florida was probably not the best business to be in. Now as we near the bottom they are getting out of writing new policies. Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., the largest-volume insurer, recently expande...
More About: Mortgage Insurance , Ends

Blogging Is Hard Some Days
2008-05-25 10:13:00
Don?t you feel this way? I know I do. I try to do 3 posts a day during the week, more or less on the weekends (typically less unless it is raining). But if you are wanting to build a readership, blogging with regularity is very important. Face it, would you go to your local coffee ...
More About: Real Estate , Blogging , Hard , Days

Inventory and Sales Almost Equal, Is This The Bottom?
2008-05-24 14:19:00
Look at this chart from Calculated Risk carefully. If you need to see a bigger version, click on it or here. This is the scary part. It looks like we may hit a point where the inventory of homes for sale in the country will exceed the sales for the year. I wonder if that ...
More About: Sales , Inventory , Foreclosure , Equal , Bottom

The 230 Million Dollar Mansion - Most Expensive Home Sale Ever
2008-05-23 22:45:00
Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal has bought Noam Gottesman’s Kensington Palace Gardens home for a cool 117 million pounds. The previous record was just up the road on London’s Billionaires Row. It is interesting to see London taking the place where all of the top end real estate is selling. Outside of Trump’s sale of his ...
More About: Dollar , Home , Sale , Mansion , Most Expensive

Libel Lawsuits and Real Estate Bloggers
2008-05-23 15:04:00
Before I started Real Estate Blogging I had a political weblog. The battles there were epic compared to those on the real estate side as Conservatives and Liberals fought for the hearts and minds of the nations public. There were bitter accusations and equally nasty responses. But real estate bloggers have a different worry. We ...
More About: Lawsuits , Real Estate , Bloggers

New Jersey Realtors Mad At NAR Over Inflated Numbers
2008-05-23 14:52:00
The public who follows real estate reporting, i.e. my readers, have long been amused and baffled at the overly optimistic numbers that the National Association Of Realtors has put out. Well, a new group of folks are getting annoyed at what is perceived as grandstanding by the NAR. Actual dues paying New Jersey Realtors. The ...
More About: Numbers

San Diego Foreclosure Rescue Scam Busted After 400 Ripped Off
2008-05-23 14:41:00
Desperate people tend to make desperate mistakes. This will bring out the worst in some people as has happened with a foreclosure rescue scam in San Diego . 5 people were arrested including the ringleaders William Hutchings and Xiaoke Li in a foreclosure scam that affected 400 mainly Hispanic families. What happened is that they offered ...
More About: Foreclosure , Busted , Rescue , Scam

Did Congresswoman Richardson Lose Her House To Foreclosure?
2008-05-22 17:17:00
In an example of the lack of character that has permeated the Congress of the United States, California Congresswoman Laura Richardson , Democrat from California, has reportedly lost here home in Sacramento to foreclosure. She put out a statement to the LA Times that she was renegotiating with the lender, but another report says that the ...
More About: House , Foreclosure

Housing Prices Drop, Affordibility Improves, Buyers Return, Media Notices
2008-05-21 15:43:00
We need to teach economics better in the country. Lets do the formula that we all know. Speculators drive the housing market up. Typical buyers are priced out. Some still buy. Market hits the top, speculators bail out. Prices drop hurting late buyers. Foreclosures and inventory make prices drop fast and hard. Homes become affordable to typical buyers. Buyers ...
More About: Media , Real Estate , Housing , Return , Notices

BlackRock Buys 15 Billion in Loans From UBS
2008-05-21 15:26:00
BlackRock has a new fund that is buying 15 billion dollars worth of Alt-A and Subprime paper from Zurich based UBS. The large bank is trying to reduce risk while BlackRock is looking to make a killing. To me this is an inflection point. Typically when the larger institutions are dumping their portfolios and able ...
More About: Loans , Mortgage , Billion

What Happens To Real Estate Prices When The Airline Leaves Your City?
2008-05-21 14:45:00
With the high price of jet fuel, airlines are stopping service to many cities across the United States. There are 30 cities that have seen air service end in the past year and 400 who have seen their service cut. But my question is, what does the loss of airline service do to property values in a ...
More About: Estate , Real Estate , City , Real , Airline

Google Going Pac Man On Search Results For April, 2008
2008-05-20 21:32:00
This chart will tell you the story on why we focus on Google so much. (looks like PacMan eating the others, doesn’t it?) Tags: Google, Search , April -08 Post from: The Real Estate Bloggers Google Going Pac Man On Search Results For April, 2008

Property Rights The Key To Space Exploration?
2008-05-20 15:51:00
I read an interesting article this weekend in the Boston Globe about space exploration. Why space exploration you ask? Well it all comes down to property rights and how people motivated by greed can do a whole lot of good. Presently space exploration is moribund. From the time Kennedy made his famous speech government and ...
More About: Space , Real Estate , Property , Rights , Exploration

Paid Foreclosure Tour Starts In Atlanta
2008-05-20 13:49:00
Foreclosure tours have been popping up around the country and into the news, but a new one in Atlanta has an interesting twist. Instead of the real estate agent renting the bus and working to get commissions, Damon Borozny is charging for the tour. For $49, or $65 per couple, you get get a 5 ...
More About: Foreclosure , Tour , Paid

California Foreclosures Forcing Wells Fargo To Boost Reserves
2008-05-19 19:33:00
While this may unnerve some folks, I take it as a very healthy sign. Well Fargo is boosting it’s reserves to deal with the foreclosure problem it is facing, mostly in California . The company is not hiding behind any accounting trickery or denials but is instead recognizing the problem and confronting it. An analyst said ...
More About: Real Estate , Foreclosures , Boost

Are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac A Danger To US Economy?
2008-05-19 11:35:00
When trying to see the long term implications of the housing slowdown and the credit crisis, you have to put the 2 quasi governmental lenders front and center in the discussion. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac combined provide the support structure for mortgage lending in the United States. Be it setting benchmarks on lending or ...
More About: Economy , Foreclosure , Freddie Mac , Danger