Archives: November 2007

Double-digit price drops in some metro areas

Posted by: Prashant Gopal on November 30

New York's slightly up. Los Angeles is down. And home sellers across the country have little to cheer about. Of the 25 metropolitan areas included in the new "RPX Monthly...

Florida condo owners footing bill for foreclosures

Posted by: Prashant Gopal on November 29

The spate of foreclosures in Florida could make it even more expensive to live the beachfront condo lifestyle that the state is famous for. Condo associations, which collect fees...

California turns

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on November 28

The once red-hot California housing marketing has officially turned. The California Association of Realtors reports that sales fell 40% in October while the median home price dipped below $500,000 for...

Paper Economy says it can tell what your house is worth. Roughly.

Posted by: Peter Coy on November 28

The website Paper Economy has created a tool that purports to tell you how much your house is worth. All you have to tell it is what metro area you're...

New Numbers from Countrywide

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on November 28

In a presentation to Wall Street yesterday David Bigelow, Countrywide's director of investor relations, gave an update on the company's latest numbers. In October the company made $22 billion in...

The housing bust is really a land bust

Posted by: Peter Coy on November 27

Unless you live in the countryside, where land is cheap, there's a good chance that the price of the land your house is built on is more valuable than...

Eddie Murphy has a deal for you

Posted by: Prashant Gopal on November 27

Back in the spring of 2005, during my stint as a staff writer for The Record of Bergen County, a home in Alpine, N.J. went on the market for...

Paying off your mortgage, one gift at a time

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on November 27

Countrywide staffers haven't had much to cheer about this holiday season, with the company struggling to right itself amidst the slumping the mortgage market, but the company announced some success...

Whetting buyers' appetites

Posted by: Prashant Gopal on November 27

Some home sellers are thowing in cars and vacations to lure buyers to the closing table. So why not a kitchen that comes with a personal chef? Sound like a...

You won't find a housing slump here

Posted by: Prashant Gopal on November 21

The National Association of Realtors’ new third-quarter survey of single-home sales suggests a national real estate slowdown. But if you ask a home seller in North Dakota, you might hear...

Case study of what's going on in Washington

Posted by: Dean Foust on November 21

This from the Northern Virginia Housing Bubble Fallout blog, shows the asking prices for a home in Woodbridge, which (if memory serves) is about 15-20 miles south of Washington D.C....

Showing Mortgage Execs the Door

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on November 20

H&R Block CEO Mark Ernst resigned today, the latest casualty of the mortgage industry meltdown that's already claimed Citigroup's Charles Prince and Merril Lynch's Stanley O'Neal. How many more CEO...

Suddenly everybody hates Fannie and Freddie

Posted by: Peter Coy on November 16

This is the B side of the blog item I wrote a few days ago, called Suddenly everybody loves Fannie and Freddie. In that item, I worried that Congress was...

Arnold and the Housing Slump

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on November 16

One unlikely victim of the housing crunch is California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. It ain’t just because his $11 million home in LA’s ritzy Brentwood neighborhood is slipping in value. The...

Jesse Jackson's march on Wall Street

Posted by: Peter Coy on November 14

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson recently announced plans for a rally on Wall Street on Monday, Dec. 10, calling for relief for homeowners who face foreclosure. Here's a link...

Help a homeowner, get a double-digit return

Posted by: Peter Coy on November 13

Lewis Braham wrote a fascinating article in the latest issue of BW (Nov. 19 cover date) called "Help a homeowner, get a double-digit return." It's a Personal Business story about...

Suddenly everybody loves Fannie and Freddie

Posted by: Peter Coy on November 13

Amazing how quickly Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have gotten back into the good graces of Congress. The two heavyweight companies insure mortgages. They also buy mortgages and mortgage-backed...

Oops. This isn't the first decline in home prices

Posted by: Peter Coy on November 13

I want to take back something I wrote on Oct. 11, when I tentatively sided with those who claim this is the first time since the Great Depression that...

Cheaper homes inflated the most during the boom

Posted by: Peter Coy on November 13

In many cities, the housing boom and bust have been cruelest to the people who could least afford it. That becomes clear from analyzing data released last week by Standard...

What is Hip?

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on November 13

That's a question the Tower of Power asked in their funky 1973 hit single by the same name. It's one Realtor.com revists in a new product launched today called Find...

Honest Abe Goes to Vegas

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on November 12

The big annual convention for the National Association of Realtors kicks off tonight in Las Vegas. Among those scheduled to perform at the four day conclave: comedian Bill Cosby, singer...

Washington DC Bubble Redux

Posted by: Dean Foust on November 09

The thread that I started two years ago on Washington DC sparked the most heated -- and most active -- debate of any topic to date. Though the comments have...

Budget Rental Rip-off

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on November 08

Budget Truck Rental advertises an $18.99 per day rental price but don’t expect to actually pay that when your moving day is done. I recently rented a truck from the...

Guess who can't sell his house?

Posted by: Dean Foust on November 06

A little more than a year ago I posted an entry picking up on a Washington Post article noting that the president of the National Association of Realtors, Thomas...

A Monty Python-esque explanation of the subprime problem

Posted by: Dean Foust on November 05

If you don't understand the subprime mess -- no, I mean you really don't understand the subprime mess, in layman's terms, at least -- then watch this video. It's a...

Land Grab

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on November 05

What do you do when the company you work for eliminates your division? If you're Jeff Gault you go out and start a new business. Gault used to run the...

The "reset" problem could be a four-year drag on housing...

Posted by: Dean Foust on November 02

Much has been written in recent months about as bad as the subprime problem looks at the moment, what with rising defaults, it will only get worse. That's because the...

Motor City Meltdown

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on November 01

Sometimes its the vultures who get eaten. General Motors was lucky to unload a majority stake in its finance subsidiary (GMAC) for $14 billion last year. The subsidiary, now 51%...

Are home prices less 'sticky' this time around?

Posted by: Peter Coy on November 01

Home prices are notoriously sticky in a slump. "Sticky" means that they don't fall quickly even if demand drops a lot. The reasons are familiar: Sellers get fixated on what...