Archive for November, 2009

Commercial Real Estate Seeing Bottom

After a few years of following real estate, it is interesting to see the difference between the residential real estate market and the commercial markets.
For the residential market, real estate is home, a major investment, personal, and passionate. Decisions are not logical and are driven by status and desire.
The commercial market is all [...]

16Nov2009 | Tom Royce | 7 comments | Continued

First Time Home Buyers Account For Nearly Half of Home Sales

Great news, the new home owner stimulus package did work. Nearly half of all homes sold between July 2008 and June 2009 were by first time home buyers. Average price was $156,000 and the median income of the household making the purchase was $61,600.
And the last piece of good news is that the government [...]

16Nov2009 | Tom Royce | 8 comments | Continued

FHA Running Out Of Money

The Federal Housing Administration is nearly broke. Or in their parlance, dangerous low in cash reserves.
Yes, this is the same FHA that has provided loans to those who are unable to come up with the down payments that most banks are requiring or that loans for those with credit blemishes.
The same FHA that has [...]

13Nov2009 | Tom Royce | 7 comments | Continued

Digital Assets For Real Estate Professionals

The past couple of weeks I have spent working and talking with people outside of the real estate industry about their web presence. It really brought home the point of how advanced many real estate agents, mortgage professionals, and those in the industry are.
We have domains that can be worth a great deal of [...]

13Nov2009 | Tom Royce | 4 comments | Continued

Who Is Watching Fannie And Freddie? Answer Nobody Now. Internal Auditor Fired

Who is watching the hen-house full of 6 trillion dollars? If you are thinking about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, today the answer is nobody. The agencies inspector general must have been getting too close to the truth as he has been fired in a complicated bureaucratic maneuver and now there is no oversight of the [...]

11Nov2009 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Third Quarter Existing Homes Sales Increase 11.4 Percent, Prices Drop 11.2 Percent

With stimulus provided by the new homeowners tax credit, we saw an increase in home sales in the 3rd Quarter of 2009. That is the good news. The bad news, prices dropped 11.2 percent from 2008 levels, ones anyone who watches real estate know were anemic.
Prices did rise in 30 of the 153 metro [...]

10Nov2009 | Tom Royce | 5 comments | Continued

So Different Than 2005

Funny, and sad, how perspectives change. Empathy is a good skill for real estate agents to have these days.

9Nov2009 | Tom Royce | 3 comments | Continued

Top 10 Commercial Real Estate Markets For 2010

If you are a commercial investor odds are you are a bit shell shocked coming into the end of 2009. The marketplace is tough, the property values are a glimmer of what they once were, and let’s not even talk about rents.
But there is good news for some of the markets out there. The need [...]

8Nov2009 | Tom Royce | 5 comments | Continued

An Open Letter to Move Inc on How To Be Profitable

Dear Move Inc Braintrust,
Okay, you get a great deal on one of the premier properties on the web. The real estate portal Realtor.com is yours to monetize. Yet you do such a poor job with it that the people whose name you have on it actively dislike you. Competitors are able to offer a [...]

6Nov2009 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued

$8,000 New Home Buyer Tax Credit, $6,500 Old Home Buyer Tax Credit

The Senate last night passed an extension of the $8,000 Home Buyer Tax Credit for new home buyers and added on a $6,500 bonus for those who are buying a new home and have lived in their old home for 5 of the 8 previous years. The House of Representatives is expected to pass the bill [...]

5Nov2009 | Tom Royce | 16 comments | Continued