Housing Blogs

I’ll be trying to do this hotsheet report every few days, or at least once a week. I’ll go back to the day after the previous report to keep you informed.
This report for the last 7 days.
New Listings - 39
Price Changed - 36
Properties Sold - 30
Properties Expired - 34

As I am not allowed to market other broker’s listings on a web site, I can’t give the details via email alert once you request it. I can set you up to receive hotsheet reports on new listings as they are entered into the system by any MLS broker. J…
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This is kind of old news but if you haven’t seen it yet, you need to watch this YouTube of Jim Cramer: “No. No. No. Bear Stearns is fine.”I discussed Cramer almost a year ago in my post James J. Cramer: Mad Money, Indeed. To this day it is one of the most popular posts on this blog….
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Purchase Price: $590,000
Purchased: 5/16/2005
Current Asking Price: $499,000 (Short Sale)
15% under 2005 purchase price

Dorsett Drive, Mount Olive NJ
History
MLS# 2255782
Listed: 3/8/2006
Original List Price: $689,900
Reduced to: $634,899
Days on Market: 156
Withdrawn
M…
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1) NM 585 Roadway Reconstruction to Continue
Roadway reconstruction on NM 585 (Canon East) and NM 68 (Paseo del Pueblo Sur) is scheduled to start again during the week of March 24, according to District Five of the New Mexico Department of Transportation (D5 NMDOT).
The project has been under winter suspension during the past months.  Crews will begin to excavate the eastbound lanes of NM 585 to begin roundabout construction. Motorists will continue to use the westbound detour at this time. The detour will eventually move to the eastbound lanes to begin excavation on the opposite side. Detour signage will be posted along the project’s work zone….
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Taos Center for the Arts

March 19, 2008

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With two months of 2008 in the books I thought it would be a good time to start forecasting year end numbers.Real estate sales are seasonal yet predictable. Typically 10% to 13% of the annual sales occurs in the first two months of the year. With this we can estimate the annual sales for 2008.The percent of total sales that occurred in the first two months are as follows:2005 10.5%2006 11.9%2007 12.6%…
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Big news out of Bend today…From the Bend Bulletin:…
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I don’t know whether it will continue.Gary North thinks that it might….
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Yolanda Cruz knew soon after she refinanced her home two and a half years ago she had a problem.
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The Federal Reserve is likely to cut interest rates again Tuesday, but don’t expect mortgage rates to go down too. In fact, home loans could be heading higher.
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You will need to click on the image to get a sharper image.Here is the latest consolidated balance sheet from the Bank of England. Normally, central bank accounting would not attract any attention. However, these are not normal times….
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Here’s an interesting comparison.
As of December’s Case-Shiller data, prices in San Diego County have fallen nearly 20% from their November 2005 peak. As of last month, their median price for all homes sold (single-family and condos) was $415,000 (source: San Diego Union-Tribune)…
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Mortgage rates were down nearly 50 basis points week-over-week (.5%) as the Fed cut borrowing rates and pumped a whole bunch of “dollars” in to the financial markets to improve liquidity. Such a massive swing shouldn’t be taken as a trend, as rates have been all over the board in recent weeks. As we learned in the past y…
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Despite the all gloomy talk about a recession, the latest economic data shows that the UK economy is still in good shape. Earlier this week, inflation data showed a sharp pick up in prices, pushing the CPI inflation rate well above the 2 percent goverment target. Meanwhile RPI inflation remains stubbornly above 4 percent.…
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Posted By:Diana OlickI’ve been reporting on the new proposals from House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank that he put forth in a news conference this morning. A lot of it is very complicated and has to do tighter regulations of capital markets and investment banks.   …
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“I know what you’re thinking, punk: you’re thinking, ‘Did he fire six shots or only five?’ Now, to tell you the truth, I’ve forgotten myself with all this excitement. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and will blow your head clean off, you gotta ask yourself a question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?”…
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No wonder we keep getting sloppy mainstream media reporting.  It is all we can expect if  readers aren’t going to take the time to give the information they are given  a hard look.  Case in point.
R.L. Brown, a new home analyst in the Phoenix area, was quoted in an Arizona Republic article yesterday entitled Valley new-home permits dip during February:…
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In the era of 100% financing, speculation was widespread. Why not, speculators had nothing to lose other than their credit score, and if prices had gone up, they would have reaped a huge windfall. We have documented case after case of this behavior right here on this blog. Are we flagellating the equine after it has already perished? Perhaps, but until this behavior is seen for what it was, lenders will not learn their lessons, and they will do it all over again. Realistically, the only thing that could save housing prices would be a return of 100% financing and the elimination of lending standards like we saw during the bubble. There is only one problem with that: people cannot afford the payments — They have proven that much. The continued use of 100% financing through 2007 was the only thing delaying the crash. Now that the FED is lowering interest rates, they are hoping this will translate into lower borrowing costs and help knife-catchers finance the huge sums necessary to afford today’s pricing and slow the decent of prices. There is only one problem with that: as the FED lowers interest rates it increases inflation expectations, and mortgage interest rates go up. Hmmm… It is really quite a quandary….
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From the Star Ledger:
Few pick Jersey as their new home
If you followed the money last year, chances are you found yourself in Texas.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which today releases its annual county-by-county population estimates for the nation, oil-rich Texas was home to the highest total population gain, adding nearly a half-million new residents to its rolls. As gas prices soared between July 2006 and July 2007, Texas boomed.
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So much for the 420-point rally. The euphoria only lasted one day and volatility is going haywire in every market including a massive sell off in commodities. So much for juicing the credit markets with another rate cut. I’ve been seeing an argument being thrown around that having two 400+ point days in two consecutive weeks is good. Unfortunately, we are still hovering near yearly lows and we are nowhere close to the peak of 14,198. Volatility as we are seeing in the current market is significant in telling us that the market is not doing well. Aside from perma-bull thinking that we are hitting support levels, we need only look at yes, the Great Depression to show us that in the worst economic markets we see the fiercest single up and down days. Take a look at the most significant one day gains and losses as a percentage of the total market for the DOW:
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