Archive for October, 2005

How Not to Deal With Foreclosure

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Foreclosure is a horrible experience for anyone who has to experience it. Some people deal with it in different ways. Some turn over the keys politely, others do everything they can to refinance or find a way out of […]

29Oct2005 | Tom Royce | 3 comments | Continued

New Toys Means Redesigning New Homes

Ten years ago, when a new home was built, the builder made sure there was a nook for the television set. Everyone wanted the built in look, with the television out of site. Now we are ten years later and the flat screen television is the showpiece. These televisions are designed to be placed on […]

29Oct2005 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

National Real Estate Sales Hold Steady

The Courier Post Online has this story on the National Real Estate Market holding steady for September. The effect of the hurricanes led to increased demand for housing according to the article.

Sales of previously owned homes held steady in September at the second-highest level on record as demand was bolstered by hurricane evacuees, a […]

28Oct2005 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Boston Real Estate Market Slows

The Boston area real estate market has slowed down according to real estate agents interviewed in an article in the Boston Globe today. The market, which has been rising at a blistering pace over the past 10 years, has turned into a buyers market.

“A weakening housing market will be a significant weight on the […]

28Oct2005 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Want to Become A Real Estate Agent? Probably Better Off Waiting

Being a Real Estate agent in the boom years is a fairly easy job if you are the type who can find listings. Houses move quickly, take very little effort to sell, and the commissions are nice to take home at the end of the month.
But when the market slows down, selling a house is real […]

26Oct2005 | Tom Royce | 3 comments | Continued

Bubble Economics - 150 to 200 Rule in Real Estate

With all the talk over a real estate bubble right now, it is very hard to determine a rule that would carry over well to understand whether a local market is oversold or undersold. Reading the Motley Fool today, they had a nice simple rule that seems logical.

Bringing it home: The 150 to 200 […]

26Oct2005 | Tom Royce | 8 comments | Continued

Most Interest Only Mortgage Holders Pay Back Principal Early

Most homeowners who take out interest only mortgages pay back some of the principal early, a survey commissioned by Wells Fargo Banks Consumer Credit Group. The New Mexico Business Weekly has the story.

The nationwide survey of 1,300 homeowners was conducted in August 2005 by International Communications Research for Wells Fargo. It had a margin of error rate […]

25Oct2005 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

The New York Times Talks About What a Real Estate Bubble is (or isn’t)

What is a real estate bubble? Everyone is working hard to either confirm or deny that a bubble is occurring in the real estate market, but since the definition is so muddy, we can not determine what the parameters are? With the stock market, there is a period where stocks rise quickly, then fall drastically. […]

25Oct2005 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued

Cendant to Split into 4 Companies

Cendant’s attempt to be all things to all people, has failed, and in its place will be 4 different companies specializing in their different segments of the marketplace; travel bookings, hotel properties, real estate, and rental cars. This will allow the different companies to concentrate on their core competencies, and allow the different segments to explore […]

24Oct2005 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

A Quarter of New Orleans Homes to Be Bulldozed

New Orlean’s damage from Hurricane Katrina may lead to the forced destruction of at least 25 percent of the homes in New Orleans. This is much better than the initial reports of the destroying the whole city, but these numbers sure are sobering when looked at from outside.
The Houston Chronicle reports:

Really, the whole scope of […]

23Oct2005 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued