Monthly Archives: April 2007

Less money for a rainy day

Posted on April 26, 2007 by grim
Posted in New Jersey Real Estate, Politics, Property Taxes | 3 Comments

From the Times Trenton: Tax plan may not bring relief A leading Wall Street bond rating firm has warned that the Legislature’s tax relief strategy could create fiscal problems for New Jersey’s 566 municipalities in years to come. In a … Continue reading →

Economic shutdown for Morris Co.?

Posted on April 26, 2007 by grim
Posted in New Development, New Jersey Real Estate | 5 Comments

From the Daily Record: Freeholders blast N.J. water plan Morris County freeholders Wednesday blasted proposed state clean water and sewer rules that call for upgrading protection for nearly all area rivers and streams to the highest protection levels. The freeholders … Continue reading →

Prosecuting mortgage fraud

Posted on April 26, 2007 by grim
Posted in National Real Estate, Risky Lending | 1 Comment

From the Boston Globe: Patrick proposes mortgage fraud law Addressing Massachusetts’ rapidly escalating number of home foreclosures for the first time, Governor Deval Patrick yesterday proposed tougher enforcement and penalties in the mortgage markets, including criminal prosecution of lenders and … Continue reading →

April Beige Book – Second District (NY)

Posted on April 26, 2007 by grim
Posted in Economics, New Jersey Real Estate | Comments Off

From the Federal Reserve: Beige Book – Second District–New York Economic activity in the Second District has grown steadily since the last report. Consumer prices remain relatively stable, despite some signs of acceleration in input prices and wages. Labor markets … Continue reading →

NJ Foreclosures Up 51.56% (YOY) in Q1

Posted on April 25, 2007 by grim
Posted in National Real Estate, Risky Lending | 4 Comments

From RealtyTrac: More Than 430,000 Foreclosure Filings Reported in Q1 RealtyTrac(TM), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released first-quarter data from its 2007 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, showing more than 430,000 foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale … Continue reading →

Options on the other side of the river

Posted on April 25, 2007 by grim
Posted in New Development, New Jersey Real Estate | 8 Comments

From Bloomberg: Hoboken’s Luxury-Condo Builders Get Lifeline From New Residents Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando helped make Hoboken, New Jersey, famous. Now designer Michael Graves and builder Robert Toll are making the waterfront town across the Hudson River from Lower … Continue reading →

Stemming the outflow of young adults

Posted on April 25, 2007 by grim
Posted in National Real Estate, New Development | 3 Comments

From the NY Times: Staten Island Considers New Plans to Keep Its Youth From Leaving To reverse the flow of younger people leaving Staten Island, the borough should entice developers to build more affordable apartments close to the ferry, according … Continue reading →

March Existing Home Sales & February C&S Home Prices

Posted on April 24, 2007 by grim
Posted in Economics, National Real Estate | 375 Comments

March Existing Home Sales are due out at 10:00am EST this morning. The consensus estimates put the figure at 6.45m, down from 6.69m in February. From MarketWatch: Home prices fall at fastest rate in 13 years U.S. home prices continued … Continue reading →

Housing downturn “deeper and broader than previously anticipated”

Posted on April 24, 2007 by grim
Posted in Economics, National Real Estate | 40 Comments

From Reuters: U.S. new home market may take until 2009 to rebound: S&P Recovery of the U.S. market for new homes could take another year if trouble in the adjustable-rate subprime mortgage market spreads to other types of residential lending, … Continue reading →

Can IRAs save the housing market?

Posted on April 24, 2007 by grim
Posted in National Real Estate | 18 Comments

From the NY Post: ONE WAY TO GET HOUSING BACK ON ITS FEET NO doubt about it, the housing industry is in trouble. And as housing goes, so goes the national economy. I’ll give you a simple solution that will … Continue reading →

International impact of U.S. housing slump

Posted on April 23, 2007 by grim
Posted in Housing Bubble, National Real Estate | 149 Comments

From the Wall Street Journal: Latin America Feels Pain Of U.S. Housing Slump By JOEL MILLMAN April 23, 2007; Page A2 The slowing U.S. housing market already has taken a bite out of the U.S. economy. Now, the fallout is … Continue reading →

Bottom falling out of the NJ market?

Posted on April 23, 2007 by grim
Posted in Housing Bubble, New Jersey Real Estate | 7 Comments

From the Daily Record: Seller beware: Morris home prices slip 3.5% The average price of homes sold in Morris County declined in the first quarter of 2007 by 3.52 percent, according to statistics from the Garden State Multiple Listing Service. … Continue reading →

Not optimistic about the home buying season

Posted on April 23, 2007 by grim
Posted in New Jersey Real Estate | 4 Comments

From the Record: Buyers will like spring selling season When Iraj and Michele Hastings began searching for a house in North Jersey recently, they were happy to find a lot of choices in their price range of around $500,000. “We … Continue reading →

Shutting down subprime

Posted on April 23, 2007 by grim
Posted in Housing Bubble, Risky Lending | 2 Comments

From Bloomberg: Countrywide’s Mozilo Says Regulators May Worsen Subprime Losses Banking regulators may push more homeowners into foreclosure by making it tougher to refinance subprime mortgages, said Angelo Mozilo, head of the largest U.S. home-loan lender. The Federal Reserve, Federal … Continue reading →

Lowball April 1-15, 2007

Posted on April 23, 2007 by grim
Posted in Lowball | 5 Comments

Welcome to another edition of Lowball! Lowball! takes a look at home sales from a different perspective. For those new to Lowball!, a lowball offer is when a buyer offers a significantly lower bid than asking in hopes that the … Continue reading →