Bubblers and Ripples
photo credit: chris9486
USA Today has a story today re a connection between the decline in housing and the decline in electronics sales. As most things that show correlation without showing causation, it’s interesting but not much more. It does, however, dovetail nicely with a post I’ve considered writing to those numbered and universally nameless […]
Paul Potts: Horatio Alger in the Twenty-First Century
I’m a sucker for excellence, so that’s the theme of this Saturday morning diversion.
I caught the tail end of an interview on FOX news with an opera singer who’d apparently won the Britain’s Got Talent competition, the precursor to American Idol. I love opera, couldn’t imagine its appearance on AI, and the interview was […]
Standing athwart history, part 2.
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The business of real estate is changing, not because of a tough market but in spite of it. [When homes aren’t selling, sellers understandably gravitate toward high-volume high-profile listing agents, reinforcing the status quo.] It’s a process, but the internet is turning everything on its head: Buyers are savvy enough to do their own searches, […]
“It stands athwart history, yelling Stop…”
I started this morning with ideas germinating on real estate weblogs, web 2.0 and (once again) the state of real estate. The business is changing because how people approach buying and selling homes is changing, and web 2.0, still embryonic, is going to be a big part of it. We just don’t yet know how.
But […]
On the Theory People Don’t Want Spin; Portland Market Dynamics
Charles Turner asks an excellent question: How Do We Measure Real Estate Markets? Statistics exist to prove almost anything one wants to prove; what, though, will give the best indication of a market’s health?
When I was with Nordstrom in the seventies, volume was king. While most department stores calculated success on their gross margin, we […]
Conforming Loan Limits: In Portland, They Are What They Are
Prior to the final passage of the recently signed and inaptly named Stimulus Bill*, it was speculated that the conforming loan limit - the $417,000 cap on loans bought by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae - would be extended to as much as $729,000, thus allowing such jumbo loans to be financed at a much […]
Sellers: How to do it Right
In this market it’s now axiomatic that, next to the right price, the most important step in whether or not a home will sell is its condition when listed. I wrote this nearly a year ago, and repeat it in various forms in every listing appointment:
Condition. Unless you’re selling a fixer – and have priced it […]
The Time Value of Homes
When the buying frenzy was hitting stride three years ago, builders were buying any lot they could find in Lake Oswego; in many cases, buying tear-downs and rebuilding. Three hundred thousand dollar lots aren’t good places for two hundred thousand dollar homes, so there are now 122 active listings in LO over $1 million, […]
2008, State of Portland Real Estate: Not Great
But, in my sunny optimistic way, not awful, either.
[Note for the record I’m an optimist, not an ostrich optimist. The former sees problems and calculates the odds of getting beyond them; the ostrich simply pretends the problems don’t exist (see: NAR).]
The good news is that activity has picked up dramatically in the last three or four […]
The Vagaries of Technology; Confessions of a Cutting Edge Luddite
I started my morning with an email - sent late last night - from a client: “Jeff, we have been trying to call you all evening. Your phone is not working.” Nothing serious - they just want to write a $750k offer - but I was concerned nonetheless.
Here’s what happened: In my clever attempt to be available […]
