Archive for December, 2007

Internet Causes GMAC Real Estate To Close 15 Offices in Massachusetts and New Hampshire

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!GMAC Real Estate is on to something. They are closing 15 offices in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Why you ask? Well, they announced that buyers are starting their searches on the internet and do not need to visit offices […]

15Dec2007 | Tom Royce | 3 comments | Continued

The Top 10 Internet Searches For Real Estate Sites

One of the biggest concerns when I talk to real estate agents is, “What are the chances that my site will be found? After seeing the most recent survey on top real estate sites on the internet, I would say very good. Very, very good.
The big boys that we who follow the real estate market […]

14Dec2007 | Tom Royce | 3 comments | Continued

Veterans Affairs Issues Guidelines for Valueing Homes in a Declining Market

If you are selling in a declining market and are looking on how the Veterans Administration will be determining if they will lend on a VA loan, they have issued some guidance on what criteria they are using to value a loan.
Appraisal Scoop found this PDF file on the guidelines and has a great […]

13Dec2007 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

FrontDoor Will Compete With Zillow For Top Real Estate Portal Position

Let me make a bet.
Zillow will win this battle. A division of E.W. Scripps, Scripps Networks, is launching a new real estate portal , FrontDoor.com, to go head to head with Zillow as the destination for real estate discussion and more importantly, the advertising dollars that follow them.
But they have a huge hurdle […]

13Dec2007 | Tom Royce | 5 comments | Continued

LIBOR Not Treasury Rates Hurting SubPrime Borrowers

The Federal Reserve is in a bit of a pickle. They lowered short term borrowing rates a quarter point yesterday to ease concerns of the subprime crisis, but many of these borrowers are essentially unaffected by the reductions.
That is because their loans are based upon the Libor rate. Libor, short for London interbank offer rate, […]

12Dec2007 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Washington Mutual To Cut 3,150 Jobs

This is a true case of “if you live by the sword you die by the sword.” Washington Mutual, or WaMu, grew dramatically on their mortgage business.
There are 4 branches now within 10 miles of my house that have been built over the past couple of years when there were none before. Now with […]

11Dec2007 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Fannie Mae Increases Fees For New Mortgages

The cost of new mortgages is going up as Fannie Mae has added a new up-front charge to the loans they purchase or guarantee.

Fannie Mae, the giant government-sponsored mortgage investor, last week raised costs for many borrowers by quietly adding a 0.25% up-front charge on all new mortgages that it buys or guarantees. On […]

11Dec2007 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Meanwhile Good Copy And Great Headlines Shine

We berated a headline and fear mongering at BusinessWeek earlier, but here is a great article written by Edward Glaesar saying essentially the same thing but with modest restraint and a sense of history.
Just Part of the Cycle

Home prices have started to fall in cities throughout America and these declines may augur more serious […]

10Dec2007 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Ugh, The Power of a Bad Headline to Make One Cringe

Sorry, but this one just drove me off the edge. BusinessWeek has this headline on a story by Prashant Gopal, and I am still cringing.
Even Hot Housing Markets Can Go Cold
Now I enjoy BusinessWeek and have great respect for their housing reporting, it is some of the best in the business, but the editor who […]

10Dec2007 | Tom Royce | 4 comments | Continued

Who Will The Fall Guy Be In The Subprime Mortgage “Crisis”? You!

We are looking at the President’s proposal to the mortgage industry to freeze subprime rates and the entering of the real estate crisis into the political sphere. I get a daily email from the New York Time of their top stories and instead of real estate being on the business page as it typically is, […]

9Dec2007 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued