Posts tagged as:

housing

Housing

Foreclosures and Mortgage Delinquencies: A Tale Of Opposites

by Tom Koziol | November 20, 2009
Thumbnail image for Foreclosures and Mortgage Delinquencies: A Tale Of Opposites

Today’s news seems to bring us a tale of opposites every time they report on the real estate market as it exists at this point in time. For example, an article by the AP just the other day said “the pace at which people fell behind on their mortgages slowed during the summer for the [...]

2 comments Read the full article →
Real Estate Investing

Invest on the Ground Floor

by Winston Westbrook | November 20, 2009
Thumbnail image for Invest on the Ground Floor

My grandfather was born in Guayaquil Ecuador in 1906. He came to America in the 70’s and would tell me stories about his business in Ecuador exporting bananas to the United States. He loved America and all it stood for; he wouldn’t drive anything but American made cars. Chevy to be exact, lol. He [...]

0 comments Read the full article →
Commentary

Home Ownership Below 50%: Is it Possible?

by Peter Giardini | November 18, 2009
Thumbnail image for Home Ownership Below 50%: Is it Possible?

Is it even conceivable that home ownership in the US could drop from its current 67% – 68% range to 50% or even lower?
That is the gist of a conversation I had with a real estate agent last January.   Based on his reading of the tea leaves, he couldn’t foresee a scenario where home ownership [...]

2 comments Read the full article →
Housing

The Hot Real Estate Spots For 2010

by Charles Feldman | November 18, 2009
Thumbnail image for The Hot Real Estate Spots For 2010

Washington, D.C.; San Francisco; Austin, Texas; Boston and good old New York top the list of five projected top real estate markets for 2010, according to The Urban Land Institute.
Washington, says the report from ULI, is where “…major insurers and big banks have taken a long term view and are actually providing financing for new [...]

5 comments Read the full article →
Landlord Tenant

Landlords Beware: Discrimination can cost you Millions!

Thumbnail image for Landlords Beware: Discrimination can cost you Millions! by Winston Westbrook | November 10, 2009

It cost billionaire Donald T. Sterling millions.
On November 3rd of this year the Justice department received the biggest settlement on a housing discrimination lawsuit.
Donald T. Sterling has agreed to pay $2.725 million to settle allegations that he discriminated against African-Americans, Hispanics and families with children at apartment buildings he controls in Los Angeles.
The Justice Department [...]

2 comments Read the full article →
Commercial Real Estate

Apartment Vacancy Rate Hits Its Highest Point In Nearly 25 Years

by Christina Inman | November 2, 2009

In what is an interesting phenomenon, apartment vacancies have hit their highest point since 1986 in cities across the country. 
According to Reis Inc., a New York real-estate research firm that tracks vacancies and rents in the top 79 U.S. markets, the vacancy rate reached 7.8% this summer, which is normally a strong period for rentals. [...]

6 comments Read the full article →
Economy

New Home Sales fall 3.6% for September, First Decline Since March

by Joshua Dorkin | October 28, 2009

The White House keeps telling us that we’re in a recovery, yet anyone watching the economy, housing, foreclosures, unemployment, the stock market, commercial real estate, and dozens of other factors will tell you that they have some rose colored glasses glued on. Of course, if they didn’t, what they would tell us is that [...]

5 comments Read the full article →
Real Estate Market

Is The Housing Market Overheating . . . Again?

by Peter Giardini | October 27, 2009

It seems that in these past two weeks, we have experienced a tremendous increase in relatively negative news regarding the real estate market.  Usually I just chalk up all this negativity to the media working hard to score a few extra bucks.  However, this time I am choosing to not be so hard on the [...]

9 comments Read the full article →
Commentary

A Quiz You Can’t Fail: How Will You Make Money in Real Estate

by Tom Koziol | October 23, 2009

As everyone knows, the real estate market is in the tank – at least that is the overall perception. On the other hand, we all have heard that there are people who are still making money in real estate. At least they say they are.

If it is true that people are making money, here is a quiz that should be a no brainer. By the way, this quiz won’t be graded. Not by me at least. You may decide to give yourself a grade just for grins.

The Setting

Lets say you live in a housing market that has been described by a national real estate forecast service as the country’s “weakest housing market.” It is projected to have the biggest decline in value in the next 12 months among all housing markets in the nation with a 12 percent median price dip for both new and existing single-family homes.

In making its determination, the forecast service looked at 260 metro areas using more than 50 variables, including housing supply, population trends, unemployment and inflation. And, speaking of unemployment, your area has just seen a full one percent spike upward.

3 comments Read the full article →
Real Estate Marketing

Targeting Property Listings without Violating the Fair Housing Act

by Molly Castelazo | October 16, 2009

Equal Housing Opportunity LogoYou’re sitting down to write a property listing.  You know my first rule of marketing: Make it personal.  But how do you do that – and stay within Fair Housing guidelines?

The Fair Housing Act, explained

The purpose of the Fair Housing Act is to ensure that a person can buy or rent a house or apartment wherever they want regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, religious preference, disability, family status or national origin. In some areas, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is also prohibited.

Unfortunately the Fair Housing Act doesn’t actually list the words you are and are not allowed to use in your marketing communications. The language you can and cannot use while remaining faithful to the spirit of the Act is up for interpretation.

5 comments Read the full article →
Commentary

First Time Home Owner Tax Credit Likely To Stay; But Current Homeowners Still Face Uncertain Future

by Charles Feldman | October 7, 2009

As the, so far, jobless recovery continues, the White House is reportedly hunkered down trying to figure out what to do next. Obama administration officials are taking note of programs that have worked and those that have not done as well.

Among the programs that apparently fall into the “success” column is the $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers.

The tax credit for first timers was part of the $787 billion dollar stimulus program and is being credited with helping the real estate industry stage a modest comeback—at least among first time home buyers.

6 comments Read the full article →
Economy

Where is the real estate market going?

by Ryan Moeller | October 6, 2009

Has the real estate market bottomed? No, nope, not a chance. We are through 1 of 3 storms and have a crippled economy and really high unemployment. The good news is that we are through the worst. With terrible times come tremendous opportunities. After the last up cycle where everything went way higher then it should have, this had to happen. It is inevitable. If you are like me, you see the next 3-5 years as the opportunity of a lifetime. Here is why.

9 comments Read the full article →
Housing

Short Sale Relief: Fact or Fiction?

by Peter Giardini | October 6, 2009

A couple of weeks ago I posted an article that included a chart that showed that there are still a boat load (over a million) Adjustable Rate Mortgages that will reset between now and 2011. You can re-read that article here.

Many experts believe the Fed Rate will hold steady through most of 2010 and therefore, the number of mortgage resets may not see huge jumps. Many of these mortgages are tied to properties that are upside down, meaning the property value is less than the mortgage, and that will be the primary reason for increased defaults — or it will at least make these properties prime candidates for short sales.

Real estate investors can attest to how hard it has been to get lenders to let go of their inventory, and if you specialize in short sales, you know that at times, waiting for a short sale response from a lender is a lot like watching grass grow.

4 comments Read the full article →
Real Estate News

The Flood Gates Have To Open Soon…

by Peter Giardini | September 29, 2009

For many real estate investors, these past several months have brought a welcome sigh of relief as homeowners have come into the market in truly satisfying numbers. In many parts of the country the steady downward slide in prices has tapered off and we have been seeing what may be the bottom in terms of further price declines… or NOT!

Are Some Hyping Up the Real Estate Market Too Soon?

The numbers throughout the Summer have been promoted with great fanfare… the Schiller-Case Index and National Board of Realtors proclaiming that prices may have bottomed out and the worst is over. Great news if you can believe it!

While I am delighted that prices have stabilized and even increased in some markets and that home sales over these past several months have been solid and even matching sales volumes from 2005…I have been troubled and what I haven’t been able to put my finger on is this…

With all of the homes going into foreclosure, when will this inventory start to pull this “current” housing recovery down? This Bloomberg article is not good news… and suggests that we have a long way to go before all of the current and projected foreclosed inventory can be absorbed.

So the million dollar question is this… How long can lenders continue to hold their REO inventory?

2 comments Read the full article →
Commentary

The New Real Estate Niche

by Tom Koziol | September 25, 2009
Real Estate
Image by Thomas Hawk via Flickr

After you read this post you will realize the “new” is really the “old” but, in the end, who cares. At least according to me.

We’ve all seen headlines that read: Existing home sales dip in August or words to that effect. Truth is, those headlines aren’t news anymore. They used to be but used to be has become the norm or maybe I should say the numb.

To add more numb to this post, we all have read articles telling us real estate practitioners and investors are expressing frustration with what they consider slow action from banks. That is, banks aren’t releasing inventory fast to satisfy the demand.

My question boils down to what do they really expect from institutions that have moved, on a historical basis, extremely slow. It is merely business as usual.

On the other hand, given a red-hot market has poked its head out of the ground we should expect business not to be usual. We should demand those institutions with a home inventory to get off their duffs and start moving the product. A home is no different than any other retail product, other than the sales price. When demand flares up, release the inventory and satisfy the demand.

1 comment Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Copyright © 2004-2009 BiggerPockets, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
BiggerPockets® is a registered trademark of BiggerPockets, Inc.