Rethinking the REThink Future Program, Part 2: The Ostrich Scenario

In part 1, I began to tackle the REThink Future program that is currently underway. I have posted Nicole-Anne Boyer’s gracious response to that post here. And now, we dive into the Scenarios themselves… because… well, because it’s fun for me. Let me reiterate my agreement with the idea that if the purpose of these scenarios is … Read more

On That Strong Buyer Demand Thing…

First, watch the video above. It’s my doppelganger Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist at NAR, explaining the 1.4% drop in June pending home sales. This comes on the heels of bad news about June released several days ago: June Existing Home Sales down 5.4% June New Home Sales down 8.4% And predictably, the media and various … Read more

Real Estate Hope and Change for the Hope and Change Generation

My friend Eric Stegemann, a Millennial himself, tweeted out the following article from BusinessWeek talking about the “Lost Generation” of Homeowners: For some analysts, the scariest outcome of the collapsed home-price bubble is that it could turn an entire generation of would-be homeowners into perma-renters. Yale economist Robert Shiller floated the idea of a “lost … Read more

NPR Notices Millennials Aren’t Buying Houses

[Continuing my experiment on short posts… 600 words or less, guaranteed.] I’ve been sounding the alarm on the Millennials for… oh… over two years now, I guess, starting with this post in March of 2010. I noticed that even the mainstream media (like the LA Times) is starting to catch on to the fact that … Read more

NPR Notices Millennials Aren't Buying Houses

[Continuing my experiment on short posts… 600 words or less, guaranteed.] I’ve been sounding the alarm on the Millennials for… oh… over two years now, I guess, starting with this post in March of 2010. I noticed that even the mainstream media (like the LA Times) is starting to catch on to the fact that … Read more

Some Data I Just Don’t Understand…

I think this might be a bleg (that would be a blog/beg) for help in making sense of some recent buyer data. Some of this just makes so little sense to me that I’m asking the Notorious community for assistance. The buyer data comes from Redfin. I’m focusing on it because I know Redfin’s corporate … Read more

Some Data I Just Don't Understand…

I think this might be a bleg (that would be a blog/beg) for help in making sense of some recent buyer data. Some of this just makes so little sense to me that I’m asking the Notorious community for assistance. The buyer data comes from Redfin. I’m focusing on it because I know Redfin’s corporate … Read more

Calling the Housing Market Bottom? Not So Fast…

Courtesy of NAR Research — one of the more valuable things on Facebook — comes this CNBC article on how investors are flooding the residential real estate market: The number of homes sold to investors more than doubled last year, as rising rents and low-priced distressed properties fueled demand. Investors, half of them using no … Read more

Three Questions on the NAR/Bipartisan Policy Center Paper

The Bipartisan Policy Center — a think tank based in Washington DC once described as the place “where moderate Republicans go to embrace their inner liberal” — has released a new study in conjunction with NAR, the Urban Institute, and USC that is worth reading in full if you’re interested in topics like future of … Read more