Timing the Housing Market As John Maynard Keynes famously observed, “the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.” Or, in the case of housing the last decade-plus: ‘stay above trend line longer than you can stay in a rental.’ Citing the charts reproduced at right, commentators like Barron’s Alan Abelson make the...Read More
Three Reasons Why Deals Are Tougher in a Recession What amuses me about 99% of the articles written about the housing market — and there’s been an explosion lately — is that they’re not written by active, working Realtors. Most are simply journalists whose “beat” (area of focus) is the housing market. On a scale...Read More
Where: 4241 Basswood Rd. (Fern Hill neighborhood in St. Louis Park)Asking Price: $699,900Sold Price: $670,000Tax Value: $731,000Key Stat’s: 3 BR/3BA; 4,300 FSFMarket Time: one day (12/31/2008) “The reason dolphins have a reputation for saving drowning swimmers is that you never hear from the ones they push out to sea.”–Anonymous There’s no question that the housing...Read More
Short Sale Multiple Choice My client made an offer November 17 on a South Minneapolis short sale (the lender(s) must agree to accept less than the outstanding mortgage balance). When did he hear back from the listing agent (representing the Seller)? a. November 29b. December 3c. December 21d. January 23 Answer: none of the above....Read More
Recession, Uncertainty Hammer Big-Ticket PurchasesWhat to know what’s selling today? Not big-ticket items. On a scale of 1-10 (1 is the lowest, 10 is the highest), here is a shorthand — mine — for the magnitude of various consumer (and business) purchase decisions. Just like the Richter scale, this scale is logarithmic, kind of (8.0...Read More
Latest Unemployment Numbers According to the Labor Department, the U.S. economy shed 598,000 jobs in December. What does that mean for the housing market? In a nutshell: 598,000 fewer home buyers. Statistically, you’d guess that a least a couple thousand of those laid off in December were at various stages of buying a home. That...Read More
