Better Than Blueprints: The “Jumping-Up-and-Down” Test One of the issues that can come up for downsizers moving from a single-family home to multi-family housing (condo or townhome) is privacy — specifically, noise. I don’t know about townhomes (see below), but I do know a surefire, albeit not-so-scientific way to test how quiet a given condo...Read More
Post-Election Aftermath: Stock Market Boom, Bond Market Bust Overshadowed by all the political fallout the last week is the election’s effect on interest rates: up, quickly. According to Edina Mortgage’s Steve Mohabir, subsequent to the election, interest rates for a 30-year mortgage for well-qualified borrowers jumped a huge (“Yuge??“) 50 basis points, from 3.5% to over...Read More
Serving the Country, or Himself the Next 4-8 Years? Once everyone recovers from our collective, national OMG moment, what’s next? For the approaching Trump Administration, I’d argue that step #1 isn’t making key White House personnel decisions, appointing Cabinet members, or (God forbid), tweeting in response to inane provocations. Rather, it’s putting his business interests...Read More
2016 Presidential Election Aftermath Investors just got handed a classic lesson in not trying to anticipate “macro” events like elections: –Number of experts predicting Trump win: < 10 (anywhere on the planet. Maybe). –Number of experts predicting markets would go UP after Trump win: 0. Of course, it’s too soon to know whether markets will...Read More
New Inspection Contingency Timetable for Minnesota Home Buyers, Sellers [Editor’s Note: The views expressed here are solely those of Ross Kaplan, and do not represent Edina Realty, Berkshire Hathaway, or any other entity referenced. If you need legal advice, please consult an attorney.] The answer to the question, “when does 5+2+1 = 10?,” is, “when...Read More
Needed to Rejuvenate Politics: Young Blood (and Shorter Podiums) We won’t know until later tomorrow night (hopefully) who the next U.S. President will be. But, I’ve got an early favorite for the 2040 President ticket: my son Gabriel Kaplan, and his 8th grade classmate, Aviv Dahan. That’s when they’ll both be 35+ — and constitutionally eligible...Read More
