Thursday Open Thread
This is your open thread for today. Please post random links and off-topic discussions here.
Off-topic comment? Interesting link?
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12 comments:
"Big Lies, Small Lies and Felony Lies: Welcome to Real Estate 2006
Deceptive lending, deceptive listings, deceptive borrowers, deceptive buyers, deceptive sellers--has there ever been an industry more rife with corruption and lies than the current real estate market? Really? Where?
As astonishing as the endless layers of lies is the complacency and droll acceptance of the deceit which reigns supreme in the real estate and mortgage industries. "Business as usual," now that "the market is returning to normal." Is business based on deception "normal" now?"
http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html
More corruption:
Two title companies face lawsuit
Several Washington homeowners are suing two title companies, claiming that inducements the companies illegally paid to get business referrals drove up the cost of their title insurance policies.
Kreidler reported companies spending thousands on things such as food and drinks, tickets to sporting events and trips for golf, skiing and shopping. He asserted that this added to the cost of title insurance, because insurance fees are the companies' sole source of revenue.
Hey guys,
I am not sure if you have seen this blog yet (If you have sorry for the redundancy), but I think it really puts a face to the trials of people who got in over their head during the housing boom. Granted this guy screwed up, but I think he knows it too. I believe the real culprit here is these seminars that make people think real estate investing is such a snap and requires zero experience. Anyhow, take a look for yourself: www.iamfacingforeclosure.com
4 Percent:
Heard that on NPR this morning. My first thought was "Why is this clown not being prosecuted for mortgage fraud?" I agree that the lenders are the other half of the problem, but I look at it this way: If a store places merchandise on the sidewalk, it does not make it OK to steal just becuase it is easy to steal.
Perhaps he and Kendra Todd will have a love-child together.
We will all pay for Casey's sins, whether we own a home or not.
Welcome back, Shug. We were worried about you.
I've definitely seen a change on the ground in the eastside over the last year. There's a lot more houses for sale than before, and many of them are now sitting for months at a time. Even six months ago they would have flown off the market. I havent been watching prices, with a few exceptions, so I have limited info on that. The latest trend I've noticed is houses coming off the market without selling. Of the eight houses on my route to/from work, three have just dropped off the market without selling in the last two weeks. One of them is now up for rent. That's more than have sold on the same route in the last two months.
'SHUG!!!!
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!!!
We have had to bring in people from RCG, just for entertainment purposes.
Glad to hear you are still alive and well.
E
Thanks for the warm welcome back....
This is the busiest time of the year for me....and biz has doubled this year on top of it so I don't have much time to follow RE. We're also having another kid next month so I won't have much time to post.
Anyway, it's been an interesting ride the last month or so. Sort of looked like we might be going the way of CA. But now inventory is going down again so I think we just had the normal Fall slow down. We'll know more when the MLS #s come out...
meshugy said: "inventory is going down again"
It's not definitive, but I see that the listings on ziprealty for my area (East Bellevue, 98008) have continued to keep creeping up. We are at 87 listings as of this afternoon. We were in the 70s during September.
Shug,
apparently you've been away. The Tim posted awhile ago that inventory has NEVER increased in the month of Oct as far back as his data is reliable. By looking at housingtracker.net, it looks like we could have the first inventory increase for the month of October since 2000. That would be significant. Even if inventory does go down slightly, it reinforces the bubble in my mind, if we were "bubble-less", their should be a dramatic increase in inventory, which we are not seeing.
sorry, to edit my last post the last sentence should say DECREASE not increase. My bad.
I will not be surprised if the inventory drops for the fall. As I've posted in other threads, I'm seeing houses come off the market in my neighborhood without selling. I'm assuming these are people that were fishing for a buyer at a high sell price, but have no hard proof of that. What's interesting is that several of these have already been vacated, which makes me wonder if they now have two mortgages, i.e. they traded up but have been unable to sell the old place. I think the real downward pressure on prices will come from ARM resets that people will not be able the refinance because of stalled or negative appreciation.
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