Archives: May 2006

Twenty-Somethings Who Want Their Own Apartments

Posted by: Peter Coy on May 31

It's a gimmick, but a good gimmick. To publicize its website, apartments.com is running a contest between three twenty-somethings who want to move out of their parents' homes. The Chicago-style...

What's up in downtown LA?

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on May 30

It’s been years in the making. Even as cities such as Cleveland, Denver, Houston and San Diego enjoyed startling rebirths of their downtowns, Los Angeles, king of sprawl, could...

Meanwhile in China ...

Posted by: Peter Coy on May 30

The Chinese government is alarmed about speculation in the housing market and is trying to dampen it. Here's an article about it from the English edition of the People's Daily....

High Cost of Smart Growth

Posted by: Peter Coy on May 30

Are restrictive zoning laws making housing unaffordable? There's a strong argument that the high cost of housing in markets like New York, Boston, and San Francisco is at least partly...

Real Estate 'Porn'

Posted by: Peter Coy on May 26

Loved this story by Diana Olick of CNBC, "Real estate sites feed new data obsession." Check it out here. Quote: He’s typing in your address as we speak. He’s scanning...

Exotic or Toxic? New Mortgage Report

Posted by: Peter Coy on May 24

Check out a just-released report by the Consumer Federation of America that says low-income people are signing up for risky mortgages that could land them in big trouble....

Less to Sales Rise Than Meets the Eye

Posted by: Peter Coy on May 24

Don't be overly impressed by reports on the Census Bureau report today that sales of new one-family houses in April rose 4.9%, seasonally adjusted, from their level in March. Economist...

Housing Slump in the Second Inning?

Posted by: Peter Coy on May 23

Housing construction has cooled abruptly. Economist David Rosenberg of Merrill Lynch calculates that the number of starts on construction has fallen at an annual rate of 56% over the past...

Financial Squeeze

Posted by: Toddi Gutner on May 22

The mass-affluent, about 33 million households that have investable assets between $100,000 and $1 million, are likely to be squeezed significantly as the real estate market deflates. This group has...

The Mercury Rising

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on May 19

In city planning-speak it's called adaptive reuse, but in the real world that means taking old structures of one kind and turning them into something else. A fine example...

Beware of Mortgage Rescue Firms

Posted by: Peter Coy on May 18

People who fall behind on their mortgages can fall prey to "rescue" firms that take over their houses and then eventually evict them. Here's a heartbreaking story on the topic...

Nobody's immune

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on May 17

The housing slowdown that's already begun in other parts of the country is catching up to the Golden State. Home sales in Southern California fell 16% in April, their steepest...

Is $75 Million Too Much for a House?

Posted by: Peter Coy on May 17

Is $75 million more than anyone should spend for a house? According to a Reuters story, that's the asking price for a house in Orange County, Calif. If it sold...

Homebuilder Mood Worst Since 1995

Posted by: Peter Coy on May 15

Growing pessimism among builders. Today the National Association of Home Builders announced that in May its index of builders' perceptions of sales conditions dropped to its lowest since mid-1995. To...

Katrina Has Been Very Good to Brokers in N.O.

Posted by: Peter Coy on May 12

Check out this amazing Associated Press story about how the real estate business is thriving in New Orleans. Turns out that this is nothing unusual--brokers always do well in the...

An Index of Sprawl (Pittsburgh Is Worst)

Posted by: Peter Coy on May 11

You could argue that sprawl is a phony issue. After all, people have to live somewhere. And why should those ensconced in suburban and rural splendor be allowed to close...

Opportunity in Homebuilder Stocks?

Posted by: Toddi Gutner on May 08

Here’s a stock tip. Check out the homebuilder stocks. Why? Let me explain: Last week, Mara Der Hovanesian authored Handicapping the LBO Stakes which created a list of stocks that...

Gotta Laugh

Posted by: Peter Coy on May 08

Yeah, I know I already plugged America's Overvalued Real Estate a month ago, but here I go again. Check out this item from late last week. Location: Culver City, Calif....

For Sale By Owner

Posted by: Peter Coy on May 05

Realtors will argue that only a professional can get you a good price and guide you through the intricacies of closing. But selling your house without an agent is getting...

The Real Estate Job Boom

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on May 02

Few industries have created as much wealth in the past few years as real estate. Thousands of Americans have flocked to the business, most notably as Realtors and mortgage brokers....

Green Homes

Posted by: Peter Coy on May 02

This is an artist's rendering of an environmentally conscious home that's going up in Raleigh, N.C. It's called the National Homebuilder Mainstream GreenHome. Just a few of its "green"...