“So Done” vs. “Are You Done Yet?” For an unassuming four letter word, “done” sure has a lot of different connotations. I count at least eight (below), including two meanings — one good, one bad — popular in residential real estate. One. To perfection. Example: “That house is done. It’s not staged like a spec house.”...Read More
Lies, Damn Lies, and Housing Predictions “Government statistics are often questionable and sometimes turn out to have been highly misleading. Unfortunately for policy makers, such errors are most likely to be severe at precisely the time that the economy is turning around.” –Floyd Norris, “Doubting the Economic Data? Consider the Source”; The NYT (11/6/2014) “It’s...Read More
“The Only Color That Matters in Real Estate is Green” “Steer-ing”: the discriminatory practice by a real estate agent of maneuvering a client from a minority group away from considering a home in a white neighborhood. —Dictionary.com Realtors quickly learn that there are taboo words in real estate. Like, anything relating to creed or color; socioeconomic status; or even directive behavior such as “steering.” Nouns vs. Verbs Which, of course, is all as it should be. But,...Read More
Turning Keynes Inside Out “Markets can stay irrational longer than investors can stay solvent.” –John Maynard Keynes In light of The Federal Reserve’s unprecedented, going-on-six-year campaign of monetary stimulus, perhaps the question to ask isn’t, “why are stocks trading at record levels?” Rather, it’s “why aren’t stocks even higher?” My answer: because at least some...Read More
10% Increase the Last Year? Not According to Agents According to the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Index (“Case-Shiller”), the U.S. housing market is up about 10% the last year. However, if you ask in-the-trenches Realtors (like me), they’ll tell you the real number is lower — something like up 5%. Who’s right? Put is this way: it...Read More
Housing Market – Stock Market Linkage Economic observers — and readers of this blog — know the dynamic well. Namely, melting stocks precipitate a flight to safety (bonds), which drives down interest rates . . . helping home sales (at least in the short run). In fact, just such a sequence played out this week,...Read More
