Archives: September 2006

How 'Boomfluentials' Want to Retire

Posted by: Peter Coy on September 29

You are a Boomfluential if you are between 50 and 60 years old and have an annual household income of $100,000 or more. Boomfluentials--according to publisher Hanley Wood LLC, which...

How to get rich in Florida real estate (hint: it involves time travel)

Posted by: Peter Coy on September 28

In his stage act, Steve Martin used to promise people a foolproof plan for how to become a millionaire. "First," he would say, "get a million dollars ...." In that...

Merrill Lynch's famous chart isn't as bad as it looks

Posted by: Peter Coy on September 26

Let me start off by saying that the following isn't meant as a criticism of David Rosenberg, Merrill Lynch & Co.'s chief North American economist. He produces some of the...

Happy Birthday Homeowners!

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 25

Every year at about this date I get a card from my insurance agent wishing me a happy birthday. It would be a nice personal touch if the computer-generated card...

Pimco's Take On Rates

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 21

Pimco the big bond fund manager is very focused on interest rates. They mean all the difference in the bond world. Lately the firm has also been watching the housing...

Is Your Money Safer in Stocks?

Posted by: Peter Coy on September 19

Housing is shaky. Is your money any safer in the stock market? I ask that question in an article on the home page of the BusinessWeek website today: Can Wall...

Harlem Is Hot Again

Posted by: Peter Coy on September 18

Harlem is hot again, says this article in a recent issue of The New York Sun. Things were already looking up back in 2001, when Bill Clinton put his post-presidential...

Homebuilding Innovation Lags

Posted by: Peter Coy on September 14

We're going through a big home remodeling and addition so I've gotten an up-close look at some of the new technologies being used in homebuilding. For example, with copper so...

J.D. Power New-Home Builder Customer Satisfaction Study

Posted by: Peter Coy on September 13

Just out today: the 2006 J.D. Power New-Home Builder Customer Satisfaction Study. If you're thinking of buying a new home, you owe it to yourself to check out this rich...

Guess who's having troubling selling their home?

Posted by: Dean Foust on September 13

This will come as sweet music to the ears of any homeowner currently having trouble selling their home: the Washington Post reports that the head of the National Association of...

Bubble, Bubble Maybe No Trouble

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 12

An outfit called Global Real Analytics sent me a study last week that aimed to debunk talk of a bubble in the commercial real estate market. I thought of it...

Blacks and Hispanics Pay Higher Mortgage Rates

Posted by: Peter Coy on September 11

Not so long ago, the biggest problem for minority borrowers was "redlining"--banks' pernicious practice of refusing to lend money to people living in certain supposedly undesirable neighborhoods. These days, it's...

A Mixed Message On Foreclosures

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 08

For those property watchers who are anxious to see when and if the sharp climb in interest rates and the slowdown in home prices is translating into widespread defaults in...

The Brits, the Aussies, and the Price of Your House

Posted by: Peter Coy on September 07

Housing prices zoomed in Britain and Australia before the big boom in the U.S., and they began to soften earlier. So Americans might be able to get a glimpse into...

How Toxic Is Your Mortgage?

Posted by: Peter Coy on September 06

Banking Editor Mara Der Hovanesian wrote the powerful cover story in the current (Sept. 11) issue of BusinessWeek, "How Toxic Is Your Mortgage? Deceptive loans. Phantom profits. And coming soon:...

Where the Loan Eagles Have Flown

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on September 06

A reader sent me an interesting article today from Atlantic Monthly http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200610/american-brains. It's written by Richard Florida, the George Mason University professor and author of The Rise of the Creative...

Builders keep retrenching

Posted by: Peter Coy on September 01

Here's what Global Insight economist Patrick Newport says about today's data on July construction spending: Construction spending fell 1.2% in July. The deteriorating housing market accounted for most of the...