Archive for January, 2006
Planet Hollywood Towers Coming to Las Vegas
If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino will break ground on a 50 story complex that will be a fixture on the Las Vegas skyline. Built in a partnership with Westgate Resorts, this comndominium and timeshare property will be connected directly [...]
23Jan2006 | Tom Royce | 6 comments | Continued
Justice Souter’s Land May Be Seized to Illustrate Eminent Domain Rulings Mistake
When the Supreme Court ruled that governments could seize land for economic development, they raised the ire of many Americans who recognize that private property rights are a basic foundation of the country. So it is with great glee that I ran report this story out of Vermont.
Angered by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that [...]
Title Insurance: A Necessary Evil, But Ripe For Change
When you purchase a home, a buyer typically gets title insurance. Title Insurance is there to protect the buyer from having a prior owner of the property coming out of the woodwork and claiming that they never sold the property. It makes sense and protects the buyer and the whole industry. No one ever lose [...]
22Jan2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued
Atlanta McMansion Tear Down Moratorium
Atlanta preservationists have won a short term victory by stopping tear downs to protect older neighborhoods from people building “McMansions” amongst the bungalows. The city will bring this up for a vote to determine to extend the moratorium for 120 days while they study the issue.
The moratorium applies to five Atlanta neighborhoods that have [...]
21Jan2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued
Durham North Carolina Land Grab By Transit Authority Using Eminant Domain
The theft of land and a business by the Durham Triangle Transit Authority is an atrocity. The TTA has decided that they needed to use the land of a local small business. That is within their right, but they offered him $150,000 less than the land appraised for, and that is when they crossed the [...]
21Jan2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued
California Eminent Domain Battle Looms
There is an interesting coalition of politicians and voters lining up in California to propose a ballot limitation of the powers of eminent domain in their state. They are looking to get a ballot initiative restricting local and state usage of eminent domain for private gain.
Some of the county’s predominantly left-leaning opponents of eminent domain [...]
20Jan2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued
Georgia Legislature Works to Restrict Eminent Domain
The Georgia State Legislature is working to create a moratorium to counteract and clean up the mess created by the United States Supreme Court by limiting the use of Eminent Domain by local governments. They have proposed a moratorium be put in place before firm legislation is created to limit the use of eminent domain.
The [...]
20Jan2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued
Federal Reserve Board - Residential Slowing, Commercial Improving
The Federal Reserve Board’s released their Beige Book. This is a collection of leading economic indicators. They are recognizing that there is some cooling in the residential marketplace.
However, the commercial marketplace is seeing renewed vigor as building is picking up, and rents are rising in many major markets.
Many Districts reported moderation in residential [...]
20Jan2006 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued
Learning About New Blogs - SoCal Bubble
The SoCal Bubble Blogger, John Doe, reminded me that I have not paid enough attention to his site. He does an outstanding job of explaining the issues facing real estate in southern California, which is an animal of its own. They tend to race between being exuberantly positive and angst filled despair. An example of [...]
19Jan2006 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued
Scary Statistic - Almost Half of First Time Homebuyers Do No Money Down
This could be a ominous sign for the real estate and banking industries. How can we allow people to buy homes with no money down. This will lead to many walking away from the homes the minute they get upside down in them.
As housing prices soared last year, an eye-popping 43 percent of first-time [...]
19Jan2006 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued
I saw this earlier today and thought the exact same thing, Tom. The politicians have been pushing homeownership for ...
I just found your blog and it's filled with great information. One of my goals this year is to update ...
Thanks for the kind words. I promise you the first year we did not have this level of readership. It ...
The limit on jumbo's is either 417,000 OR it is 115% of the median house price, not to exceed 150% ...
I like your blog and I have read many of your articles. I agree that it is amazing the ...
Yes, there are some deals out there. While there are some deals out there, I'm an agent looking for ...
With mortgage rates poised to drop to 4.5 percent all we need now is some tax incentives to help home ...
I think the overall interest in refinancing was definately high recently. However the problem is that although the rates dropped, ...
I have had great success using craigslist. Renters need to be careful and make sure they check out their landlord ...
This is the start of where the market can begin to level out.
Home owners will start to be able to ...
