Archive for April, 2008

Top Ten States For Foreclosures – March, 2008

Nevada, California, Florida, and Arizona take the top spots for foreclosures in the month of March, 2008 according to RealtyTrac. The speculative markets in these states are still unwinding as housing prices continue to recede.
Nevada is the hardest hit with one out of every 139 homes in foreclosure, nearly 4 times the national average. [...]

16Apr2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Ron Paul on Congress and the Housing Bailout

Luke Mullins has an excellent interview with former Presidential Gadfly Candidate Ron Paul on the housing crisis and the role Congress may play in it. I would have said fixing it but we all know that is smoke and mirrors.
Paul is very libertarian and on economics we share many of the same principals, let [...]

16Apr2008 | Tom Royce | 4 comments | Continued

Fulton County Georgia Businesses See Major Tax Hike

Fulton County, Georgia, which encompasses the city of Atlanta is about to raise taxes significantly on many of it’s commercial properties. The median tax increase will be 44 percent, meaning that half of the properties will see increases of more than that.
For those with tenants and a fixed rent this could really hurt ones cash [...]

15Apr2008 | Tom Royce | 3 comments | Continued

Housing Will Be Defining Issue in Presidential Election

Interesting tidbit I found reading an article on Republican candidate John McCain changing his position on the foreclosure problem in the country. Political pundits are surmising that as long as we do not have a major terrorist attack, housing will be the dominant issue in the upcoming presidential election.
That should be fairly interesting as it [...]

15Apr2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Top 10 Cities With The Worst Traffic

Hate traffic? If so these are the cities you probably want to avoid. Washington D.C. leads the list as huge levels of government hiring have choked the infrastructure and created perpetual bottlenecks on most of the highways. Coming in second is Atlanta, Georgia. When I moved here in 1991 everything was 20 minutes away. The [...]

15Apr2008 | Tom Royce | 13 comments | Continued

Is The Real Estate Downturn Ruining Your Mental Health?

Downturns in fortune are not typically happy events. Loss of job, income, and savings will raise the stress level for any of us facing these issues.
But MSNBC has a new article on how these downturns are affecting those in the real estate business. The gist of it is pretty generic, downturns raise stress and [...]

14Apr2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Menino – Send The Cities Your Tax Money (For Foreclosures, this time…)

Boston mayor Thomas Menino asked for federal aid directly to the cities to help those facing foreclosure. Now I am sure that there are noble arguments that can be made and groups that will get the money to those that are truly needy.
But that is not the reason for the plea by Menino. It is pure unadulterated [...]

12Apr2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Senate Passes Foreclosure Bill

The controversial election year housing bill has passed the Senate today, creating a possible showdown with the White House over passage of the bill. It is no surprise that I am not in favor of it as it will slowdown any much needed correction for the marketplace.
Instead, after the politicians are done handing out [...]

11Apr2008 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued

Roommates.com Loses Fair Housing Case in 9th Circuit Court

In a very controversial decision, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Roommates.com has violated the fair housing laws by matching roommates by gender, sexual orientation, and parenthood. By asking prospective roommates to put in their status on these criteria and allowing prospective roommates to judge them on that basis.
Now lets think this through, [...]

10Apr2008 | Tom Royce | 3 comments | Continued

Senator Jim Bunning Condemns Housing Bill

The housing bill that has wound it’s way through Congress is a boondoggle that could only be produced in an election year. Anyone who follows real estate and the issues being faced could tell you that, but most politicians want to be seen getting something done while giving pork to their friends and thouse politically connected. [...]

9Apr2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued