Monthly Archives: November 2010

More On Prices

The Case-Shiller index reported a larger than anticipated decline in prices month over month as well as quarter over quarter.  While the news in general was not good, it wasn’t horrific either, and reflects the continued struggle in the economy and … Continue reading

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Thankful For What What We Have

More mixed data to digest today… some good news on the unemployment front and consumer sentiment, more bad news on new home and existing home sales.  I’m feeling a bit like I’ll feel tomorrow at about 5:30: overwhelmed, overstuffed but … Continue reading

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Time To Buy or Time To Refinance

Buy your home now or at least begin your search in earnest.  If you are an aspiring homeowner, or planning to move up or down, you really want to get off the fence.  If you are staying put and haven’t … Continue reading

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The Home Interest Tax Dedution Debate

As Congress looks at ways to boost revenues, the Sacred Cow of all write-offs, the Home Interest Tax Deduction has become vulnerable.  The argument in favor of eliminating the interest write off is that no other western nation has it … Continue reading

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And Now For The Good News

It’s been a week of less than great news for real estate.  Flat pricing and declining sales numbers cast a pall over much of the housing industry.  Home repossessions were up; home starts were down and rates shot up in … Continue reading

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The World Is Not Flat At The Bottom

CNBC  reporter Diana Olick blogged today that a poll came out reporting a general consensus amongst housing experts that the market would remain struggling through 2011.  Wow, now there’s a news flash.  The predictions are explained thus: as long as … Continue reading

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Gad Zooks! The October Home Data

Well there’s no way to sugar coat the data that came out yesterday on the Southern California housing numbers; they stunk.  Sales activity was very low for this time of year and prices were essentially flat – increasing at the … Continue reading

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QE2, Bonds and The Fed’s Real Plan

For those of you that have been following this blog, you’ll recall a couple of weeks ago I suggested that QE2 would either cause rates to go down or cause them to go up, so in either case, you would … Continue reading

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Bubble, Bubble, Toil And Trouble

I watched the most insightful interview on CNBC today.  It was an interview with Jeremy Grantham, and investment adviser and someone, if you had to look to for crystal ball-like predictions, you would be fairly safe entrusting.  Grantham is very … Continue reading

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Playing With Numbers

In my real estate office, my manager regularly gives us an excel spreadsheet detailing the numbers of sales year to date as well as the inventory. It’s broken down by month, has data at various price ranges and provides the … Continue reading

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