Archive for March, 2008

Bernanke Could Be Upside Down in Washington Home

The housing bubble is fairly indiscriminate to those it affects. Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, knows this all to well. His Washington home that he purchased in 2004 close to the nexus of the housing bubble may now be upside down. Upside down is when the value of the home purchase is less [...]

21Mar2008 | Tom Royce | 3 comments | Continued

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae Trim Reserves To Revitilize the Market

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were given the go ahead to trim their capital reserves to increase liquidity in the mortgage markets. The move will allow the two to add up to 200 billion in new mortgages for the United States housing market.
Of course there is a down side. By reducing the capital of [...]

21Mar2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Housing Bubble, Whats The Trouble, Song

Great find by Binyamin Appelbaum at the Boston Real Estate Now blog over at the Boston Globe.

20Mar2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

So You Want To Be A Blogging Superstar

The New York Times has a sobering article up on the risks and perils of being a blogger. The real estate sphere is much different as many agents have a 6 percent motivation besides self aggrandizement to produce quality content.
Here are some of the tips the Times article offers:

Don’t expect to get rich.
Write about [...]

20Mar2008 | Tom Royce | 4 comments | Continued

Connecticut MLS Launches Public Portal – CTreal.com

The statewide MLS system for Connecticut has launched a new portal for the general public to search their listings. While it is not the most glamorous site, it is groundbreaking none the less. Instead of watching their franchise erode as almost all of the other MLS systems across the country are doing, they are proactively [...]

20Mar2008 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued

Real Estate (Agents?) Causing Starbucks Downturn?

Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz thinks the downturn in real estate is causing sales at his stores to take a dive. But I am wondering whether it is because of the general hit to the economy or the amount of real estate agents who have had to kick the habit as their revenue has dropped.
Face [...]

20Mar2008 | Tom Royce | 5 comments | Continued

Noelle Knox to Appointed Real Estate Editor For AP

Noelle Knox, formerly of USA today, has been hired to head the Associated Presses new focus on real estate news. This is part of the new strategy by AP to be focused on capturing the what is happening in the real estate world in a broader manner while maintaining the breaking nature of their mission.
One of [...]

19Mar2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

JP Morgan’s Buying Bear Stearns For Manhattan Real Estate?

The furor of the week over the Bear Stearns buyout has focused on the 2 dollar share price JP Morgan paid. What is interesting in the deal is how JP Morgan has gotten a high priced real estate asset, The Bear Stearns Headquarters, for a relative pittance. The building is valued at roughly 1.1 billion [...]

19Mar2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Wordpress 2.5 Coming Soon

Wordpress 2.5 is coming soon. Since many of us use Wordpress to host our weblogs it is always good to be ready for the changes.
To see the new version of Wordpress click here for a demo site. To play with the admin console, click here and then use the username admin and password demo. [...]

18Mar2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Rental Market Bright Spot On Real Estate Horizon

If the surge in demand in rental units is a surprise to any of you please go back into your dark room and close your eyes.
Shelter is a base item in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. As they say, if you have food, shelter, and water you can live. So it is no surprise that [...]

18Mar2008 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued