Lender-Mediated Sales Loom Large in Current MarketAccording to the Minneapolis Board of Realtors, “lender-mediated” properties now comprise about one-third of local market activity. The most common types of lender mediation are foreclosures and short sales (the latter require the lender to agree to take less than what it’s owed). Bad as it is, the market-wide...Read More
Thanks, RealClearMarkets.com! If you don’t regularly read a Web site called RealClearMarkets, you should: it compiles the best financial writing, from hundreds of publications and Web sites, on one (very dense) page of links. Click here to check it out: http://www.realclearmarkets.com/ Oh, and today, there’s a link to this blog (thanks to the editor, John...Read More
“Bargain Bin” Sales, or, Housing’s Wal-Mart Effect‘Home Resales Rise as Prices Fall’ –The Wall Street Journal (10/26/08)Call it the housing market’s version of the Wal-Mart effect: as consumers get pinched by a weakening economy, the goods still selling are value-priced staples. In many housing markets nationally, sales numbers are being skewed by all the purchases...Read More
Falling Knives, Twirling Machetes How do you catch a falling knife (plummeting stocks)? With very thick gloves, assuming you’re so inclined. What’s happening on Wall Street now resembles something more akin to a twirling machete (not graphic enough? the cover of the current Barron’s features a chain saw). The intra-day swings regularly exceed hundreds of...Read More
Frustrated Sellers Cancel & Re-List . . . at the Same Price Usually as a home’s time on the market climbs, Sellers become more realistic and accept incremental price reductions. One standard realtor strategy, after a home has failed to sell after 60-90 days, is to cancel the listing and bring it back on as...Read More
Rehab “Misses” are all Unique “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”–Leo TolstoySubstitute “rehab hits” for “happy families,” and “rehab misses” for “unhappy families,” and you have the rewards — and perils — of remodeling in a nutshell. I just saw an extensively rehabbed house — done on...Read More
