August 25th, 2008
The problem with home vacancies
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are a record number of homes sitting vacant. This is bad news for neighborhoods.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are a record number of homes sitting vacant. This is bad news for neighborhoods.
From early on in this presidential campaign, I’ve been hoping for some substantive debate on the problems of the housing industry. What plans do Barack Obama and John McCain have to make sure that our country doesn’t suffer another mortgage and foreclosure crisis like the one it’s suffering through now? Unfortunately, the recent housing debate between the two candidates has been far from enlightening.
I always laugh when I hear real estate agents say that the costs of owning a home are usually little more than the costs of renting. From personal experience I can tell you that is nonsense.
The cost of owning a house includes far more than your monthly mortgage. There are utility bills, which are always […]
I’ve criticized the major real estate associations in the past for spinning bad real estate news. The associations have blamed the media for making the housing crisis seem worse than it is. They’ve claimed that the current real estate slump is just a natural correction. And they’ve spent months predicting that we’ve finally reached the bottom of the market.
If you’ve never visited Bankrate.com, you’re missing out. The site provides a host of useful and important financial stories and tips for consumers.
And if you’re buying or selling a house, the advice at Bankrate can prove invaluable.
For instance, the site recently put together a list of the states were the closing costs in residential real […]
According to CNN, in the 12 months that ended June 30 of this year, nearly 25 percent of homes sold across the country sold for less than the sellers originally paid for the house. This, of course, is a disastrous transaction for sellers, probably only made under duress. The sellers had to sell now, and had no other options.
Here’s a shocking statistic: Nearly a quarter of U.S. homeowners with first mortgages also have home equity loans. At the same time, the value of outstanding home equity loans in this country has grown from $1 billion in the 1980s to more than $1 trillion now.
I’ve grown up in the Midwest, what the rest of the United States calls “flyover country.” So it pained me to see the latest list by Forbes.com. The editors there put together a feature story on the United States’ fastest-dying cities. Of course, the Midwest — and Ohio, specifically — dominated the list.
But at least the home-improvement shows are starting to reflect realty reality.
But being a real estate writer, I couldn’t help but wonder one thing as I watched the low-ranked Latvian beach volleyball team defeat the top-ranked U.S. team: What impact do the Olympic Games have, if any, on the residential real estate markets in their host cities?
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Written by Dan Rafter [email] for b5media.
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