I was in class all morning, so am in the midst of catching up. I leave you this Friday with these – (which have interesting headlines, but I haven’t read them all yet)If Michigan Is Looking at Rapid Transit, Can Virginia Be Far Behind?TDRs, a Step in the Right DirectionMedia Hype? on the emerging buyer’s marketWhy do planners favor automobiles?
Date Archives March 2006
Cheating matters
A sign of good things to come? “Cheating matters. It isn’t OK to cork a bat. Cheaters shouldn’t prosper.”Is this novel concept making its way into big business? The idealist in me wants to believe that companies such as Home Depot and Bank of America are choosing to make statements about Barry Bonds simply because it’s the right thing to do. The realist/cynic thinks that they wouldn’t say these things if they didn’t believe that at least a large part of the market would buy into the concept that cheating is wrong. Maybe UVa students will start to realize that honor includes self-policing.
April’s Forum Watch
The Free Enterprise Forum’s April Forum Watch is out. Take the time to read it. It’s long, and chock full of good information.
The Changing market.
The past several days have been interesting, with much discussion off-line (they do happen, you know) about the effects of the changing real estate market. The Wall Street Journal has an excellent summary of what some of these changes mean for different segments of the market. The changing dynamics have implications for a wide variety of players in the real-estate market…. People looking to enter the market for the first time are being told not to overly stretch their finances because rising home prices may no longer bail them out. Employees who are relocating are being advised to steer clear of new subdivisions where competition from brand new construction could make reselling soon difficult.Such strategies aren’t entirely new, but they had fallen from favor in many markets as home sales heated up early in the decade…. The number of homes for sale has climbed about 30% over a 12-month period, reaching its highest level in nearly 10 years, according to the National Association of Realtors. The group recently predicted sales of existing homes would drop 5.7% this year versus a 4.4% gain in 2005.Let me be clear – I don’t foresee the market in the Charlottesville/Central Virginia market tanking, prices dropping, or any of the other well-worn clichés being bandied about in the media. I have said it before and I will say it again – my crystal ball shows that there will be a decrease in the rate of appreciation of houses.
Double check your spelling
I don’t know which bugs me more – the misspelling of “privilege” or the fact that I can’t figure out who spelled it incorrectly in the first place. The Daily Progress’ byline is “From staff reports,” and ESPN’s says “Joe Schad.” Both reports say:”It is a privelege and not a right to wear a Cavaliers jersey and to represent our university and community,” Groh said. “There are certain things that are vital and those things come into sharper focus and are multiplied when you’re rebuilding, as we are. That’s focus, commitment and dependability.”I think it’s the misspelling.
Trends, changes and crap
The Washington Post has a potentially excellent series on Emerging Trends, touching on many facets of the changing market. From one of these articles:”It’s not what the market will bear anymore,” said Walter Molony of the National Association of Realtors. “It’s a question of what is a fair price.”Bloggers exempted from campaign laws.Don’t clog up the blogosphere with your crap…. Those putting “serially-posted advertisements” out there are doing a disservice to those who take time and ownership of what they write and also to themselves…. never say never.From Inman:Once you find the home you want to buy, discuss making an offer on it with your Realtor. Making your offer contingent upon the sale of your current home is the most common method of doing this, and while this isn’t a popular method to use in a hot market, it is very common in normal and slower markets. The market is normal at the moment, and I recently negotiated one of these contingency offers for clients of mine.Making offers contingent on the sale of one’s property used to be unheard of. Now, it is becoming more common – so much so that I now consider it a viable option in some cases.
Anecdotal evidence on the local market
This article in the Washington Times is but one example: The downturn in the housing market is deepening, with new home sales at a nine-year low, prices down for the fourth month in a row and mortgage applications at their lowest point in three years. …”We see construction diminishing somewhat and real estate prices flattening, not declining,” she said…. I received this email the other day from a reader who is renting in the area – Did you see this article in Yahoo news?… If there is a compelling reason to to buy rather than rent and you plan to be in the area more than a short period of time, (insert my usual caveats here – if you have good credit, are mentally ready for the responsibility of owning, etc.) then you should probably consider buying…. They have been conditioned to getting at least the asking price, that some are unable to see the forest for the trees. Take the past few days for example – I wrote four offers, all of which are fair offers, based on the recent sold comparable homes.1) Asking price: $285k…. Just because a Seller is asking for a certain price does not mean that is what the property is worth. That said, if a ready, willing and able buyer wants to pay full price, that property is worth full price.