2010 Year in Review — Realtor’s Version Looking back over 2010, a lot of Realtors had years like Felix Hernandez — minus the accolades. Felix who? Felix Hernandez is the Seattle Mariners’ pitcher who just won the AL Cy Young award, despite only having a measly 13 wins (he also had 232 strikeouts and a...Read More
“The Death of the Housing Market?” “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” –Mark Twain It’s hard to be a student of markets without some passing familiarity with so-called contrarian indicators: those harbingers that signal that a market is at an inflection point, presenting investors with a singular opportunity. That opportunity can either be...Read More
“How’s the Housing Market?” — Vol. 27 “Where” (location) is certainly one of the key qualifiers for anyone seeking to divine the health and direction of the housing market. But so is “what?” — as in “what kind of housing?” In the housing market, the key distinction is between existing and new housing. Conflicting Signals...Read More
What Happens May 1 (and Beyond)? The word amongst Realtors is that the tax credits for home Buyers — $8,000 for first-time Buyers, $6,500 for move-up — is a dud. Unlike the first round of incentives which expired Nov. 30, the sequel — scheduled to expire April 30 — does not appear to be catalyzing...Read More
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...Read More
Ready to Eat — er, Move Into — Homes Call it “The Trader Joe’s” Housing Market (or more accurately, the “middle-aisle-at-Trader Joe’s” housing market). That’s where the ready-to-eat, frozen meals are stocked. Not only are they attractively packaged, the right number of servings (4-6), and good quality — but they’re great values, too. Similarly, homes...Read More
