Archives: January 2009

Suicide and the Housing Market

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on January 30

It's hard to find a tale much sadder than this recent news from Los Angeles about a man who killed his wife, himself and their five beautiful children. Real...

Are home prices leveling off in the worst-hit housing markets?

Posted by: Prashant Gopal on January 27

My story today on the latest S&P Case-Shiller 20-city home price index suggests that year-over-year home price drops in Miami, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego, and other battered markets were...

Some Housing Numbers Are Up

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on January 27

Funny market we are in. Homes sales were up 27% in December to more than 500,000 in the State of California. There is just 5 months worth of homes in...

Miami Beach Condo Raffle

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on January 27

Someone is auctioning off a 1 bedroom Miami Beach condo to benefit a wounded veterans group. No more than 7,000 tickets will be sold at $100 each for the...

Moody's Predicts Housing Bottom

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on January 26

Moody's Economy.com Chief Economist Mark Zandi is coming out with a new study on the housing market. He'll discuss it in a conference call with clients on Feb. 5. Moody's...

Buyers are starting to scoop up increasingly affordable homes

Posted by: Prashant Gopal on January 26

Sales of existing single-family homes jumped an unexpected 7% in December from November's seasonally adjusted annual rate, the National Association of Realtors said Jan. 26. And the inventory of unsold...

Bad news keeps coming: Housing starts hit record low

Posted by: Prashant Gopal on January 22

The latest housing starts data from the U.S. Commerce Department is sobering. Both the production of single-family homes and new building permits fell by double digits in December, reaching a...

Hilton Hotels Packs Its Bags

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on January 22

It’s a fact of life in corporate relocations, company headquarters are based on one critical element—where does the ceo want to live? Oh, sure companies will hire consultants to analyze...

Foreclosures Fly, New Home Sales Suffer

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on January 21

Foreclosures are the place to be. Low-priced, bank-owned homes are selling briskly, says market research firm MDA DataQuick. Newly-built homes, on the other hand, are sitting on the sidelines....

New York Report Blames Adjustable Subprime Loans

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on January 19

A new report from the New York State Governor’s Task Force to Halt Abusive Lending Transactions (HALT) is out. It shows just how toxic the subprime adjustable rate mortage has...

Mortgage rates are reaching record lows, but it's not necessarily easy to refinance

Posted by: Prashant Gopal on January 16

I just wrote a story with fellow Hot Property blogger, Chris Palmeri, about the flood of mortgage refinancing applications loan officers are fielding as interest rates hit record lows. The...

Congress May Limit Executive Pay and Jets

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on January 16

The Senate voted 52-42 yesterday to allow the Treasury Department to get the second half of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program going. President-elect Obama has said he’ll use...

Commerical Real Estate Wants A Bailout

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on January 15

Lot’s of folks have been saying commercial real estate is the next shoe to drop, after residential property. Even it seems the trade association for commercial real estate developers, owners...

Over one Million People Lost their Home in 2008

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on January 14

Foreclosures.com came out with its latest numbers today, a 63 percent rise in foreclosures for 2008, with a total of about 1 million throughout the year. The foreclosure process...

Vancouver Winter Olympics in Trouble?

Posted by: Dean Foust on January 13

Talk about a real-estate deal gone bad. The city of Vancouver – which is the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics – wants to borrow roughly $370 million from British...

David Lereah's Bad Calls Hit Home

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on January 12

This blog always took a very skeptical view of the prognostications of David Lereah, formerly the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors. His relentlessly upbeat take on the...

Lennar and Minkow Duke it Out

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on January 09

Home building giant Lennar Corp. is finding itself in a war of words with Barry Minkow, the former stock swindler who now runs an entity called the Fraud Discovery...

The Obamas might not be the wealthiest Americans, but they're moving into the nation's most valuable home

Posted by: Prashant Gopal on January 08

It's not for sale, but the Obama family is moving into what could be the nation's most expensive home, according to Zillow.com Zillow estimated that the White House -- if...

Real Estate Mogul Suicide

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on January 06

First I see the news that German billionaire Adolf Merckle had stepped in front of a train. Then this news from the Chicago Tribune. Steven Good, who built Sheldon Good...

Manhattan Real Estate Sales Plunge

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on January 06

Manhattan real estate sales plunged more than 40% in the fourth quarter to 2,500 units, accoding to the latest survey from the Corcoran Group brokerage firm. Median sales prices...

Former housing industry economist who famously said there was no housing bubble now admits he was wrong

Posted by: Prashant Gopal on January 05

David Lereah, the National Association of Realtors' former chief economist who famously denied that the housing bubble existed even as it started to pop, is finally admitting that he...

Worst Recession Since the 30s Will end in 2009

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on January 02

Economists at Wells Fargo predict the economy will improve by the second half of 2009. "The ongoing impact of $2 trillion in government stimulus, with other factors such as...