Archive for May, 2007

Sensitive Lenders Now Downgrading Appraisals

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Like a college grade these days, appraisals are being met with sceptical eyes by lenders who are facing losses on their loan portfolios. During the salad years of easy lending, loan officers played the nudge-nudge wink-wink game as stated [...]

2May2007 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Schwab Creates New Real Estate Fund

You wonder the timing of Charles Schwab and Co. starting a new real estate fund. The residential market is suffering both financially and perceptually by investors. Commercial property has already had a huge run up and is nearing the top. The fund is going to invest both domestically and internationally so this may be an [...]

2May2007 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

As US Slows, Singapore’s Real-Estate Booms - Should You Invest?

If you are looking to invest in real estate and the opportunities in the United States are not exactly lighting your fire, look overseas. Right now Singapore is on fire as housing and commercial prices are exploding all over the country. The economy is changing from manufacturing to tourism and finance and the property prices [...]

2May2007 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Massachusetts Governor Puts Moratorium on Foreclosures

It looks like the governor of Massachusetts is going to put a moratorium on the ability for banks and lending institutions to foreclose on homes in Massachusetts for at least 2 months. While I appreciate his populist notions in an abstract way, Deval Patrick and Massachusetts is going to suffer from the law of unitended [...]

1May2007 | Tom Royce | 9 comments | Continued

Top 10 Metro Areas With the Worst Pollution

The eighth annual air pollution report by the American Lung Association is out and the results are not pretty. The survey measures metropolitan areas that have the worst air pollution. While the survey is designed on scientific principles, scanning through the headlines shows that it is also designed as an advocacy tool.
Over half the regions [...]

1May2007 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Student Housing Provides Its Own Challenges

If you are looking to invest in housing near college or university campuses, especially multifamily units, there is a very interesting article over at Multi-Housing News that analyzes the benefits and challenges that you would face. The demographics of college enrollment and childbirth are showing that there will continue to be increasing enrollment in universities [...]

1May2007 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Miami High Rise “Affordable Housing Grants” Flipped

What happens when you take a inefficient government program, add a dash of corruption, and round it out with a private market? You get governmental programs that are abject failures and the money ends up in the hands of the smarter guys.
Miami dedicated 1.3 million to subsidize affordable housing in a development in the [...]

1May2007 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

San Jose Battle Between Building Homes or Industry

If you live in the San Jose region of California no one needs to tell you that your housing costs are amongst the highest in the country. Demand combined with high paying jobs will turn the smallest shack into a million dollar bidding war.
So when a group of developers want to turn 532 acres [...]

1May2007 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued