Here we are at the end of another year and yet another s***head from Al Quaeda is trying to blow himself up, not with a bomb in his shoe, but this time with a bomb in his underwear. So what can we glean from this?<< MORE >>

Hi Folks -

Just a note to let you all know that I will be taking a break until the first of the New Year. After that, we get into predictions, projections, recaps and more.

Happy Holidays to All!

        

I have already written about how unemployment trickles down to an already destroyed real estate market and prevents a real recovery. But what I didn't talk about is the social cost of pervasive and extended unemployment. When we talk about the practical side of folks losing their jobs we focus on well, the practical. People who become unemployed and particularly those that stay that way for a while suffer:<< MORE >>

In all of the palaver over the potential extension of the first time home buyer's tax credit program, the cash for clunkers program, and so on, the one thing that does not seem to be getting any attention is the fact that unemployment is still climbing and climbing. The talking heads on TV and elsewhere are making much of the status of the housing market and whether it has "hit bottom" or whether it's "rebounding".<< MORE >>

Hi again faithful followers - It's been a long time since I have had a chance to jot down some thoughts and observations. The real estatemarket has been very active and I have been super busy with rental turnover and assisting buyers and sellers in purchasing, in many cases, their first home. But with all of the hoopla over the arrival of the cast and crew from Extreme Home Makeover here in the Upper Valley, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share my thoughts (which I expect will be unpopular) about this show and its "mission".<< MORE >>

I just read the below in CNNMoney.com. It underscores what is being reported locally and is worth reading as a cheery contrast to the last year of gloom and doom. Once again, I expect this trend to continue as first timers start flooding the market to take advantage of the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit of up to $8000. The program ends on November 30, 2009.<< MORE >>

As summer comes to a close in what has touted to be the worst recession in many a year, it appears that the Upper Valley has escaped relatively unscathed so far. The first quarter of the year was pretty dead in the real estate world, but since April, activity has steadily picked up and sales are becoming more frequent every month that goes by. Of course, much of the activity has been first time buyers taking advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity for the government to actually pay up to $8000 if you buy a home.<< MORE >>

Lest we forget - the $8000 tax credit for first time home buyers expires at the end of November, 2009. This means that, to take advantage of this opportunity, a first time buyer must have purchased and closed on their primary residence before the end of November. In the current world of real estate transactions, this means that you first-timers out there should be looking for your new home right now!<< MORE >>

I was watching an old John Wayne movie late the other night right after the news of Walter Cronkite's death was reported. As I watched and tried to identify the actors as best I could from having first seen them in my youth, it struck me that every one of the people I could identify was dead. John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ward Bond, Ricky Nelson and half a dozen others I can't remember now. Not to mention that most of the other lesser known players are probably dead as well. << MORE >>

I read a piece in the Valley News submitted by a professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business a couple of days ago that has been bothering me ever since I saw it. In it, the professor, no doubt a learned and respected member of the faculty ,raised the old question of whether home ownership is a "good" investment. I have seen and heard this argument raised before and can't just let it go by again. The simplified version of his claim is that $15,000 invested in the stock market, even if the market goes completely sour, is less risky that using the same $15,000 as a down payment on a home and borrowing the balance of the purchase price in the form of a mortgage. Of course his answer is perfectly correct as far as it goes. The potential total loss in the stock market is limited to the original $15,000 and the potential total loss in the real estate purchase is the total cost of the property which because a portion of the purchase has been borrowed will be far greater than $15,000. The problems with the premise are as follows:<< MORE >>