real estate indicators

See How Much Is Spent Marketing A Real Estate Listing

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Trying to figure out how much to spend marketing a home is a constant battle for real estate agents. Face it, spending money on a home that does not sell is lost money. But not spending enough may cause [...]

16Jun2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

After $4.6 Billion in Losses Head Says FHA May Have To Shut Down?

This is a wacky little bit of news and is most likely inside the beltway jockeying, but in a recent speech Brian Montgomery, head of the Federal Housing Administration, said that if losses continued at the pace they are on, the F.H.A. might have to shut down.
Meanwhile Congress and the President are debating a 300 [...]

10Jun2008 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued

Real Estate School Slowdown

We all know that real estate is a business full of highs and lows. The market takes off and then goes into deep declines like we are in now.
But imagine owning a real estate school. If you are an agent you probably dread the thought of sitting through the exciting classes on real estate [...]

9Jun2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Cash Out Refinancing Leads To Massachusetts Foreclosure Surge

Way back in 2005 I wrote how Massachusetts families were using their homes as a ATM with cash out refinancing. At that time 14 percent of household income was coming from these cash out refinances.
Well, it looks like many of these folks are losing their homes now as they took too much out of the [...]

3Jun2008 | Tom Royce | 0 comments | Continued

News Flash: As Home Prices In Tucson Come Down, Buyers Emerge

The lesson of the day is buyers are not stupid, no matter what the latest advertisement from the National Association of Realtors would have you think.
The Tucson, Arizona market was a typical market during the real estate bubble. Logical pricing all of a sudden exploded into a gold rush mentality and pricing increased significantly. Hordes of [...]

2Jun2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | Continued

Another Political Recession That Has Not Happened…

This is not aimed to be a political post, but to point out an obvious trend that is affecting us all in the real estate world.
First, whether you like President Bush or not, we know the press does not. They have fallen in love with Obama to the detriment of Hillary, McCain, and your pocketbook.
Why [...]

1Jun2008 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued

Patchwork Nation - A New Demographic Study Of The United States

Patchwork Nation is a new initiative by the Christian Science Monitor to break the country into 11 demographic units by county that best represent the population that lives there. The report has been done primarily for political purposes but the implication for housing and real estate are also included in the report.
These categories are:

Boom [...]

29May2008 | Tom Royce | 3 comments | Continued

Inventory and Sales Almost Equal, Is This The Bottom?

Look at this chart from Calculated Risk carefully. If you need to see a bigger version, click on it or here.
This is the scary part. It looks like we may hit a point where the inventory of homes for sale in the country will exceed the sales for the year.
I wonder if that [...]

24May2008 | Tom Royce | 2 comments | Continued

New Jersey Realtors Mad At NAR Over Inflated Numbers

The public who follows real estate reporting, i.e. my readers, have long been amused and baffled at the overly optimistic numbers that the National Association Of Realtors has put out. Well, a new group of folks are getting annoyed at what is perceived as grandstanding by the NAR.
Actual dues paying New Jersey Realtors.
The [...]

23May2008 | Tom Royce | 1 comment | 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