Real estate people are some of the most optimistic people I know. They have to be in order to work a business in which they don’t make a penny without a transaction getting done, and the driving motivation for the consumer is a dream: The American Dream, the Dream of Homeownership, Your Dream Home. Real … Read more
Since I broke the news of the new NAR REALTOR Party Political Survival Initiative (“#RPPSI” hereafter, as that is the Twitter hashtag as well) on Tuesday, the response has been really quite interesting and overwhelming. Various people have written blogposts on the subject. As of this writing, I know of the following posts: Jay Thompson … Read more
Since I broke the news of the new NAR REALTOR Party Political Survival Initiative (“#RPPSI” hereafter, as that is the Twitter hashtag as well) on Tuesday, the response has been really quite interesting and overwhelming. Various people have written blogposts on the subject. As of this writing, I know of the following posts: Jay Thompson … Read more
The recent news out of California, that cash buyers have set a record in home purchases, is the kind of news that makes me go Hmmmm. I wrote about it on AOL briefly, but wanted to dive into a bit more detail here. First, the news from the LA Times (h/t: Calculated Risk): All-cash buyers grabbed … Read more
Following up on my post on NAR 800K, I found this article on Inman News about a survey it conducted of its readers (subscription required). Apparently, most of the respondents agree with yours truly in thinking that at least another 20% of agents need to exit the industry before we can have recovery. But here’s … Read more
A while back, over on Notorious, I speculated that the number of real estate agents would drop further. Since the best measure of the number of real estate agents is the membership of NAR, I thought we’re headed to about 800,000 members of NAR from the around 1.2 million number we’ve heard recently. As of … Read more
The Wall Street Journal carried a story today on its front page entitled, “Banks Push Home Buyers to Put Down More Cash“. The key paragraph: The median down payment in nine major U.S. cities rose to 22% last year on properties purchased through conventional mortgages, according to an analysis for The Wall Street Journal by … Read more
Just as my AOL Real Estate column on servicers and loss mitigation gets published, I see this news cross my desk…top: Bank of America President and Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan today announced changes to Bank of America Home Loans and Insurance that will continue the company’s strong momentum in extending home mortgage credit while … Read more
Apparently, some legislators in South Dakota are pulling a political stunt by introducing a bill to require that all adults buy a gun upon turning 21. I say it’s a political stunt because the whole point of the exercise apparently is to say that Obamacare is unconstitutional, just like a an individual mandate to buy … Read more