Archive for May, 2008

Housing Prices Drop, Affordibility Improves, Buyers Return, Media Notices

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!We need to teach economics better in the country.
Lets do the formula that we all know.

Speculators drive the housing market up.
Typical buyers are priced out.
Some still buy.
Market hits the top, speculators bail out.
Prices drop hurting [...]

21May2008 | Tom Royce | 6 comments | Continued

BlackRock Buys 15 Billion in Loans From UBS

BlackRock has a new fund that is buying 15 billion dollars worth of Alt-A and Subprime paper from Zurich based UBS. The large bank is trying to reduce risk while BlackRock is looking to make a killing.
To me this is an inflection point. Typically when the larger institutions are dumping their portfolios and able [...]

21May2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

What Happens To Real Estate Prices When The Airline Leaves Your City?

With the high price of jet fuel, airlines are stopping service to many cities across the United States. There are 30 cities that have seen air service end in the past year and 400 who have seen their service cut.
But my question is, what does the loss of airline service do to property values in a [...]

21May2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Google Going Pac Man On Search Results For April, 2008

This chart will tell you the story on why we focus on Google so much.

(looks like PacMan eating the others, doesn’t it?)
Tags: Google, Search, April-08

20May2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Property Rights The Key To Space Exploration?

I read an interesting article this weekend in the Boston Globe about space exploration. Why space exploration you ask? Well it all comes down to property rights and how people motivated by greed can do a whole lot of good.
Presently space exploration is moribund. From the time Kennedy made his famous speech government and [...]

20May2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Paid Foreclosure Tour Starts In Atlanta

Foreclosure tours have been popping up around the country and into the news, but a new one in Atlanta has an interesting twist. Instead of the real estate agent renting the bus and working to get commissions, Damon Borozny is charging for the tour.
For $49, or $65 per couple, you get get a 5 [...]

20May2008 | Tom Royce | 6 comments | Continued

California Foreclosures Forcing Wells Fargo To Boost Reserves

While this may unnerve some folks, I take it as a very healthy sign. Well Fargo is boosting it’s reserves to deal with the foreclosure problem it is facing, mostly in California. The company is not hiding behind any accounting trickery or denials but is instead recognizing the problem and confronting it.

An analyst said [...]

19May2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac A Danger To US Economy?

When trying to see the long term implications of the housing slowdown and the credit crisis, you have to put the 2 quasi governmental lenders front and center in the discussion. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac combined provide the support structure for mortgage lending in the United States. Be it setting benchmarks on lending or [...]

19May2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

Single Family Housing Starts Finally Below Purchase Rate

Check out this chart from Calculated Risk comparing new housing starts, new home sales, and homes that are completed and ready for sale.

(click for full sized chart)
You will notice that for the past 2+ years we have had an extreme overbuilding issue in the housing market. Builders and developers had too many projects in the [...]

19May2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Thomas J. Flatley, 76, RIP

A great member of the real estate community, Thomas Flatley, has passed away today. He is one of the few that did it the right way with hard work and dedication to his craft.
RIP Thomas.

Born in 1921, he grew up on his family’s 25-acre farm in County Mayo, a poor rural region of [...]

17May2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued