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February 1, 2010

Residential Housing: How Good a Long-Term Investment?

Pop Quiz Want to test your knowledge of the housing market? Just answer the following question: How good a long-term investment is residential housing? A. Terrific.B. Mediocre, at best.C. Both A. and B. Correct answer: C. Huh? “Mediocre” Camp Like the three blind men (maybe they were economists?) and the elephant, it depends what you...
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Successor to "The Magazine Cover Indicator": ‘The WSJ Diss’

“Shame on You, Wall Street Journal!” Long-time stock market watchers are familiar with “The Magazine Cover Indicator”: when Business Week (or Fortune, or Forbes, or Newsweek) runs a cover with the title, “The Death of Equities,” or some such — stop what you’re doing, call your broker (does anyone still have one??) . . ....
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Today’s Sellers: Biting Two Bullets

Two Bullets Would-be Sellers of upper brackets homes now — the slowest part of today’s housing market — often have to bite not one but two bullets. The first is pricing their home consistently with “the comp’s”: similar, nearby homes that have sold recently. In fact, better than the comp’s, depending on what’s currently active...
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Shameless Ratings Ploy

So, at least according to Technorati, the City Lakes Real Estate blog ranking has been slipping lately (I haven’t a clue why — in fact, it seems like traffic is up). At the same time, it seems like whenever I mention a large company, either they or their public relations firm or lawyers immediately scope...
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"YMMV": Successor to "Whatever"

“Stop Stabbing Your Brother!!” “Whatever”OK, I got it from Barry Ritholtz’s blog — not my 10 year-old son (who started saying “whatever” at age 5: Examples: “Go to your room!” “Whatever.” “Stop stabbing your brother!!” “Whatever.”) So what is it? “YMMV” — as in, “your mileage may vary.” Use as appropriate — YMMV. P.S.: are...
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"Avatar" Meets the Housing Market

Is Virtual Staging “the Next Big Thing?” The “next big thing” in real estate likely has nothing to do with “social media” (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). Rather, my guess is that it’s “virtual staging” — using software to simulate what an empty house would look like (nicely) furnished and accessorized (wall art, area rugs, mirrors, etc.)...
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