Archives: March 2006

Media Hype?

Posted by: Toddi Gutner on March 31

While helping my colleague Peter Coy report for the week’s cover story on Buyer(and Seller) Beware: How to Navigate An Anxious Housing Market, I was stuck by the number of...

Buying From 'Properly Seasoned' Sellers

Posted by: Peter Coy on March 30

GUEST BLOG FROM TIM MULLANEY BusinessWeek's Tim Mullaney writes: Like my story in this week’s magazine says, the one thing I do know is that if I’m a home buyer...

Investment Plays For A Softer Market

Posted by: Peter Coy on March 30

GUEST BLOG FROM TIM MULLANEY BusinessWeek's Tim Mullaney writes: How do you invest in the softening real estate market? I don’t know what stocks I’d buy. I wouldn’t be racing...

Who Wins: Discount Brokers or Six Percenters?

Posted by: Peter Coy on March 30

GUEST BLOG FROM TIM MULLANEY BusinessWeek's Tim Mullaney writes: For at least a year, real estate types have been arguing over who will win when the market gets tougher –...

Is the Real Estate Market Cruising for a Bruising?

Posted by: Peter Coy on March 30

Your votes, please. First, read the cover story in BusinessWeek, put together by your Hot Property blogging team, and then weigh in with your thoughts by clicking on the Comment...

Hot Properties Are Everywhere

Posted by: Peter Coy on March 30

We aren't the only people who think "Hot Property" is a great name for chatter about real estate. *Since 1985 the Los Angeles Times has had a real estate column...

Farewell to ARMs

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on March 28

Two news releases popped up in my email recently that suggest lenders are tightening credit standards and avoiding riskier loans, moves that will likely impact housing prices. DataQuick Information Systems,...

Big Drop in New-Home Sales

Posted by: Peter Coy on March 24

An eye-popping drop in new-home sales announced today by the Census Bureau. Sales fell 10.5% from January to February. That put them 13.4% where they were in February '05. Don't...

When Bruce met Martha

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on March 23

KB Home, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, reported earnings today. Although profits were up sharply, orders for new homes were down and cancellations were up. “The market is...

Architectural Review Boards

Posted by: Peter Coy on March 23

It's not enough that you spent $2 million for a bare lot and you have to spend another $6 million to build your dream house on it. Now you're forced...

OK, Smart Guy ...

Posted by: Peter Coy on March 23

Put your money where your mouth is. Starting in April, you'll be able to hedge or speculate on housing prices in ten major U.S. cities. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange will...

Glass Foreheads

Posted by: Peter Coy on March 20

I realize that giant windows above the front door are the height of fashion in some circles, but to me they always look like glass foreheads. I picture a person...

Mortgage Delinquencies Up

Posted by: Peter Coy on March 17

Not sky-high yet, but mortgage delinquencies are edging upward and for all the reasons you'd expect: high energy prices, rising interest rates, lots of subprime and ARM loans, and the...

Downside of Debt

Posted by: Toddi Gutner on March 16

Most market watchers would agree that the air is slowly seeping out of the housing bubble. Appropraitely, now attention is being paid to what the impact is of this sea...

Should you buy stock in homebuilders?

Posted by: Dean Foust on March 15

Jan Hatzius at Goldman Sachs is one of my favorite economists on Wall Street (as you can tell from earlier postings). In a new report, Hatzius tries to gander a...

Kind-Hearted Mortgage Bankers? Looks That Way

Posted by: Peter Coy on March 15

Right about now you'd be expecting a tidal wave of foreclosures in New Orleans, but it hasn't happened. The simple reason is that mortgage bankers are giving people a break,...

After Mardi Gras: The Future of New Orleans

Posted by: Peter Coy on March 15

There's a new estimate out today from RAND Corp. on how much the population of New Orleans will rebound and it's none too pretty. By September 2008--three years after Katrina...

Donald Trump, Mortgage Broker

Posted by: Peter Coy on March 15

You walk into the mortgage broker's office hoping to cadge a cheap loan and who stands up to shake your hand? Donald Trump! Well, it might not work out quite...

Fewer Apartments Available

Posted by: Peter Coy on March 08

Scary report out today from Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. Here's an excerpt from the press release: New York City, NY – The nation is losing approximately 200,000...

Why Are Young People Leaving Vermont?

Posted by: Peter Coy on March 08

My two sisters are part of the exodus of young people from Vermont that the New York Times covered recently ("Vermont Losing Prized Resource As Young Depart," Mar. 4). I...

Is US housing 20% overvalued?

Posted by: Dean Foust on March 07

Jan Hatzius, an economist at Goldman Sachs & Co., just wrote an interesting report that should make anyone who bought at the top in a bubble market feel a little...

Commissions are crumbling...

Posted by: Dean Foust on March 07

This article, published by Inman News, is further evidence that it's a matter of time before real estate commissions come down. It tells the story of an agent named Barbara...

What's the next Hot Market?

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on March 01

There's no doubt real estate was the place to put your money in the past five years, much as tech stocks were in the late 90s. What asset class will...