Category Archives: Waccabuc NY

Why no subprime ‘criminals’ have gone to jail | South Salem Real Estate

Leave a reply

Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series.

“According to a recent ‘Nightline’ program, none of the Wall Street executives who engineered the subprime debacle have been convicted on criminal charges. Why do you think that is?”

I think that the most obvious answer is the correct one: The authorities were not able to find sufficient evidence of criminal behavior in any of the cases they investigated (and they investigated many) because there wasn’t any to be found. Imprudent violations of firms’ own internal policies abounded, but such violations are not criminal.

Underlying your question, and implicit in the “Nightline” approach, is an assumption that the subprime debacle was engineered by a profit-hungry group of lenders and investment bankers who, for some unknown reason, decided to run amuck. Given that assumption, the failure to convict anyone must mean either that law enforcement has been co-opted or that all the suspected criminals who were investigated were clever enough to destroy all evidence of their misdeeds.

via inman.com

The housing problem Minneapolis would rather forget | South Salem NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

Minneapolis, Minn., has proven to be a hard market to predict.

During the heart of the Great Recession, the housing market there was hard-hit yet employment remained stable. Then when the housing market in other metros started to improve post-recession, Minneapolis home prices redeflated, and, as a result, the city lags the recovery starting to happen elsewhere.

Minneapolis is often perceived as a white-collar town, as five Fortune 500 corporations plus a host of medical device companies and healthcare firms maintain their headquarters there. United Healthcare, which is the largest healthcare insurance company in the U.S., is based in Minneapolis and it kept hiring and expanding throughout the recession, according to Herb Tousley, director of the Shenehon Center for Real Estate at the University of St. Thomas.

“Our unemployment hangs 1.5 percent to 2 percent below the national average,” Tousley said. “At the end of 2012 our unemployment was at 5.8 percent, and we are starting to see some good job creation numbers.”

via inman.com

FHFA Price Index, Mortgage Applications | Waccabuc NY Real Estate

Leave a reply

In each Economic Update, the Research staff analyzes recently released economic indicators and addresses what these indicators mean for REALTORS® and their clients. Today’s update discusses the FHFA price index and mortgage applications.

  • Home prices rose 0.6 percent from October to November and 5.6 percent for the 12 months ending in November 2012, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). In the same period, prices reported by NAR rose 9.4 percent.
  • NAR reports the median price of all homes that have sold while FHFA reports the results of a weighted repeat-sales index. Because home sales among higher priced properties have been growing more than among lower price tiers, the NAR median price has risen by more than the weighted repeat sales index—which computes price change based on repeat sales of the same property.
  • FHFA reports show that price gains for the year were strongest in the Pacific and Mountain Census divisions and weakest in the New England and Middle Atlantic divisions.
  • Mortgage application data out today also show a trend of increasing prices. Since August 2012, year-over-year change in average purchase application loan size has exceeded 10 percent in all but three weeks.
  • Mortgage application data from the mortgage bankers show that applications are up in the week of January 18 for both refinances and purchases. Both purchase and refinance applications are up compared to one year ago as well, and could be an indicator of a strong housing market this spring and continued price growth given strong demand and relatively low inventories.

via economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org

New Home Search on Mobile Devices | South Salem NY Homes

Leave a reply

  • According to the Digital House Hunt, a joint report between NAR Research and Google, there is a tremendous opportunity for REALTORS® to market to home shoppers online.
  • 90% of home buyers searched online during their home buying process
  • 28% of new home shoppers used their mobile device for search while in line; 27% of new home shoppers used their mobile device for search while at a restuarant
  • Overall, real estate related searches on Google.com have grown 253% over the past 4 years
via economistsoutlook.blogs.realtor.org

Only you can decide if Chromebook is right for real estate | South Salem Realtor

Leave a reply

Last week I field tested a Samsung Chromebook.

Over the holidays the local Best Buy store ran out of them. They were also out of stock on Amazon.com, with a waiting list to buy one. I wanted to know what all the hype was about.

I finally got my hands on a Chomebook when a family member got one and let me play with it.

I borrowed the Chromebook for a few days, logging into my own Google account and testing everything I use on a day-to-day basis for real estate.

via inman.com