Hot housing markets in a down market
From this gallery here: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/real_estate/0805/gallery.ten_homes_up_markets.moneymag/index.html
They list:
Syracuse, New York
Buffalo, New York
Rochester, New York
Scranton, PA (more…)
The 20 Best Affordable Suburbs in the West
If I move back to the states, these are my targets:
Originally from: http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/05/0510_affsub_west/index_01.htm, from bestplaces.net
Anchorage, Alaska 99516
Metro: Anchorage
Nearest city with pop. 200,000-plus: Anchorage
Median Home Price: $550,000
Cost of Living Index: 135.4
Primary School Test Score Index*: 143
Violent Crime Index: 50
Average Commute Time: 23.7 minutes (more…)
I love these lists: “The world’s top 10 most liveable cities”
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I have no idea how they came up with the list, but I’ve been to Sydney, Tokyo & Honolulu & they were all great. I don’t think these people (who are rating these cities) have really visited Seattle or Vancouver, B.C. or rather these guys must be from Austria, Germany or somewhere in central Europe because having 50% of the list from that area and 2 others from the Scandanavian part of the continent seems a little biased…
Nevertheless, I still like the list from here:
http://www.iht.com/slideshows/2007/06/18/travel/web-0621Toptencities.php
#1 MUNICH. After much tire-kicking, data-sifting and deliberation, Munich emerged as Monocle magazine’s most liveable city in the world. A winning combination of investment in infrastructure, high-quality housing, low crime, liberal politics, strong media and general feeling of Gemütlichkeit make it a city that should inspire others. (more…)
International Real Estate Update: The Korean Real Estate Market in a slump
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This bit of news was relatively predictable, but the Korean Real Estate market is finally cooling down…in a big way. According to the JoongAng Daily from October 31st, 2007, “The Ministry of Construction and Transportation said yesterday that sales of existing apartments totaled 29,612 in September compared to 56,580 a year ago.” “Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa — dropped to 445 in September compared to 1550 a year ago.” (more…)
Kinda silly, but related to Real Estate, I guess: your 2008 Real Estate horoscope
So, I just ran into this while surfing…
“Your Annual Real Estate Horoscope for 2008
Stars Predict Your Real Estate Future (more…)
The first section of the newspaper you should open to…
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…)
The current real estate bust may last a bit longer than people hope…
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…)
It’s funny what time does in the search engine marketing world…
So, doing a search on “bellevue wa real estate”, I come up as #20 on a recent search. It fluctuates and so you may have to look on the 3rd page at times (results 21 through 30) and sometimes it climbs higher. When searching for “buyer’s agent condo bellevue”, I show up on the first page. On the most recent search, I’m #7 on the first page. The funny thing is that I’m not even practicing in the Real Estate world anymore minus helping out some Realtors who contact me occasionally. Which by the way, unfortunately due to time constraints, I can’t just help out anyone for free. However, if I do help you, you will see results better than I even imagined in my first year of real estate, I believe. The question is “if” I can help you though. (more…)
You thought Real Estate agents were crooks? There’s a reason why mortgage brokers are getting raided by the FBI instead…
So, I saw a headline recently reading “confessions of a mortgage broker” and how they do business. Reproducing the story from Yahoo here was difficult to find. So, instead I searched on YouTube.com to see if there were any good clips. The #1 clip for the search on the phrase “mortgage broker” was a news story about a broker I believe in California getting raided for doing shady business. He and his company were falsifying documents to secure loans for people. (more…)
5 Real Estate websites changing the real estate industry