Thank goodness oil prices pulled back this week, falling as much as $9 a barrel over two days. Consumers needed a break, but that doesn’t mean concern about energy prices is going away.
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Realty Viewpoint: Energy Bills Are Yet Another Dealkiller/maker
The housing industry watches jobs reports closely, because that’s the best indicator of economic health to come.
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Realty Viewpoint: Location Has Never Been More Important
It looks like the beginning of the end to one of the worst housing markets ever.
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Realty Viewpoint: Housing Price Declines Flatten
It’s official. Wall Street has declared a bear market.
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Realty Viewpoint: Bears Maul Stocks, Focus Off Of Housing
Dallas homeowners are between a rock and a hard place.
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Realty Viewpoint: Dallas Gains Jobs, Yet Banks Choke Housing
With real housing prices falling at a rate of approximately 1.5 percent, the Center for Economic and Policy Research predicts that most Baby Boomers will be financially devastated if the housing crunch continues to 2009.
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Realty Viewpoint: More Scare Tactics For Boomer Retirement
New home sales fell another 2.5 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted rate of 512,000 units. At this rate, about one million new homes will be sold by the end of the year. That’s about half what both the National Association of Home Builders and the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard says sustainable new home sales should be.
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Realty Viewpoint: New Home Sales Will Reverse Without Stimulus
Thirty-one percent of top executives interviewed in a survey by the Business Roundtable said most will cut payrolls in the next few months. By how much is not known, but one thing is for certain — they won’t cut their own pay.
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Realty Viewpoint: Investment Bank CEOs Cash Out, Proving Life’s Not Fair
The litany of bad news this week hits all sectors of the economy, with consumers hit hardest. Analysts have long cited a combination of pressures on consumers: falling home prices, rising food and energy prices, the credit crunch and a deteriorating labor market.
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Realty Viewpoint: More Signs Housing Nearing Bottom
The annual State of the Nation’s Housing 2008 has just been released by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. Abandoning the upbeat tone of last year’s report, the market analysis bluntly says that the economy can go one of two ways — a severe recession that will take housing with it, or a mild recession which will allow housing to strongly rebound.
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Realty Viewpoint: New Housing Report: Rocky Road Or Reboom?
The mortgage crisis was caused by malfeasance in both the board room and the boiler room. From the arrests of Bear Stearns’ hedge fund managers to the widespread sweep of small-time crooks for fraud, the government is taking strong action toward prosecuting those responsible for the current credit crunch and over $350 billion in Wall Street write-offs.
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Realty Viewpoint: Wall Street Arrests Mean Housing Healing Can Begin
Unfortunately for them, home builders are paying a heavy price for overbuilding, building too far away from city centers, and building the wrong products for the population.
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Realty Viewpoint: Why We Need New Home Production To Fall
Who says banks should say who gets to buy a home? Right now, banks are turning away good borrowers, choking home sales. What’s the answer? Seller financing. There’s just one little problem. Real estate agents need to tell sellers that it’s an option.
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Realty Viewpoint: Get Creative With Seller Financing
If you have a client or you are a buyer getting a mortgage loan today, count your lucky stars. Mortgage loan lenders are continuing to choke the housing market to the point that even those with good credit are having a tough time getting funds.
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Realty Viewpoint: Banks Choke Sales, Blame Delinquencies
Some consumers using Craigslist classified ads to find bargain rentals are getting a nasty surprise. Phony landlords are collecting security deposits and first month’s rent. When the renter shows up ready to move in, they find their new keys don’t work or that the property is occupied.
Realty Viewpoint: When Free Ads Aren’t A Bargain For Consumers
