Supposedly, the world’s happiest country is…Denmark. The country is #1 in terms of the Gini coefficient, #2 in terms of being the most peaceful country in the world & have the 6th highest GDP per capita.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Denmark, with its democracy, social equality and peaceful atmosphere, is the happiest country in the world, researchers said on Monday. (more…)
Too many sites, too little time (close to 100 to be exact)…
I decided to just copy and paste a bunch of websites I’ll be reviewing and reporting on later. These are courtesy of http://www.killerstartups.com
Keycanada.ca - Online Real Estate Community (more…)
Looks like Seattle’s already achieved 50% the number of housing units they were targeting for 2024 here in 2008. Approximately 47,000 housing units are built or being created right now which would represent the city’s 2024 housing targets. Specifically, Ballard and Eastlake take the cake as far as being the most overbuilt for now. Other areas in the Seattle region include Bellevue, downtown Renton, Covington and Maple Valley as far as areas that qualify as growing very fast in terms of housing.
My thoughts are possible good buying opportunities given the downturn in the housing market on top of a surplus of housing units.
More about how Seattle’s overbuilt in terms of housing here.
Sitting in a taxi cab driving home earlier tonight, I thought to myself “The Taxi rates are pretty low here in Korea. How long will this last given the increase in oil prices?” Very specifically, it costs a little less than $2 (U.S.) for a 5-10 minute cab ride and it only cost me $6 to drive across town from the express train station tonight. (more…)
As consumers, we’re getting more and more fortunate every day in terms of information available about the real estate world and for the savvier real estate agents, so are you! The year 2008 has a plethora of online virtual properties for you to do almost anything real estate related due to all the online ventures in the real estate world. I’m not going to recreate the wheel here, but instead provide you 5 great lists of real estate oriented websites online ranging from January 2007 all the way up to this past month of May 2008.
8 of the Best Real Estate Websites provided by PC Magazine (May 2008) (more…)
Businessweek with data provided by a New York firm called OnBoard identified the top 50 locations throughout the U.S. to raise your kids based on crime rates, cost of living, schools, test scores and cultural amenities.
The top were:
No. 1 Groesbeck, Ohio
No. 2 Western Springs, Ill.
No. 3 Deerfield, Ill.
No. 4 Echelon, N.J.
No. 5 Arapahoe, Neb. (more…)
Another list of potential places to invest in:
http://images.businessweek.com
The slide show argues some markets have seen as much as a 40% drop in home prices and so it’s wise to get in. A friend of mine in the business says “business is picking up” probably due to the drop.
Cities listed are Sacramento, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Atlanta, San Diego, Boston, Miami, Chicago, Seattle, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Houston and Denver.
A lot of us who are both interested in buying and helping sell real estate appreciate the section of the newspaper on the weekends which lists latest properties for sale and other interesting tidbits of local housing info. However, the first section consumers and supposed “experts” in the industry should actually read the business section from the front page to the back. Why? The business section tells you what companies are coming and going, what companies are booming and which ones are busting and most importantly, it is the true pulse of what drives every real estate market. (more…)
An article I read recently from the International Herald Tribune. It was titled “Soft landing unlikely for the housing slump” by David Leonhardt of the New York Times. It made so much sense that I’m wondering when the next “opportunity” to buy. Despite all the efforts of the Federal Reserve in the United States, there’s one unescapable fact and it’s something I’ve been preaching to my students: prices of real estate have outpaced incomes. Let’s be frank, but if you don’t have the money to pay for the housing you buy, you simply will have to give it up to foreclosure or sell it to some Joe or Joanna quick enough that they don’t realize they’re going to have the same problem soon. It just took a matter of time before the current Ratio of Median House Price to Median Household Income got too high. It’s at… (more…)
1) Can you give me the contact information at least 3 satisfied clients (buyers, if you’re buying and sellers, if you’re selling)
2) Describe the 3 most recent sales you helped clients — you can tell a lot from their recent assistance of other clients
3) What area do you know the best? An honest agent will tell you what they know the best…a less honest or one that’s a little unrealistic will tell you they can help you with anything. Unfortunately, unless they have a large team doing all the real estate data mining & constantly being fed about all the local markets, they are probably out of touch with many of the different areas in the local real estate market.
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