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| Northampton Real
Estate; a Soaring Stock Market; Food Riots in the Middle East. What's
the Connection? (April 27, 2011) |
| A Few Thoughts
on Sovereign Debt (June 6, 2010) |
|
Letter to a Friend Buying on the Cape:
Don't! (November 21,
2009) |
| A
Slow-Motion Train Wreck: The Debt Crisis and Real Estate
(December 11, 2008) |
| A
Realtor's View from Hubbert's Peak: The End of Cheap Oil and Cheap Money
(June 5, 2006) |
| War
and Property Inflation (April 7, 2005) |
| Why Home Prices
Are Going through the Roof: A Brief Guide to the "New Economy"
(January 13, 2003) |
| From Patrick Killelea of
Patrick.net,
a great resource for real estate news:
"I want to cause a sea-change in the mentality of the US. I want
people to see that mortgage debt is destructive, with no benefits at
all, except for bankers. Mortgage debt just drives up prices and
enslaves workers to their bosses. If we all paid cash for houses, or
rented, we would be more prosperous, more free, and happier."
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| More Articles on the Housing Market:
The Great Repression, by
Niall Ferguson (February 28, 2009). Ferguson on the only real
solution to the financial crisis, one that the Obama team will come
around to when all else has failed.
Depression in the East Points the Way for the Rest of the World,
by Larry Elliott (The
Guardian [UK], February 26, 2009)
What Is Your Home
Worth? Both Less and More than You Think,
by Sharon Astyk (December 16, 2008)
A Word of Advice in a Real Estate Slump: Rent by David Leonhardt
(New York Times, April 11, 2007)
Crisis Looms in Mortgage Markets by Gretchen Morgenson, March
11, 2007.
Un-Real Estate by James
Grant, April 2005
Housing bubble in
New England (Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy
Studies, Jan. 5, 2003)
"These are perilous times for asset
markets ...." (Ian Campbell, UPI, Jan. 30, 2004)
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"House of Cards: US, UK Home Prices to Decline Dramatically in
Next Few Years."
See
The Economist's survey of May 29, 2003
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"Mortgage Markets Are Out of Control," New York Times, August
17, 2003
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| Co-buying: One
solution to the high cost of housing in the Valley?
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| Considering an adjustable rate mortgage? It may be
a risky proposition. See Homeowners Urged
Caution on Hybrid Loans
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| For the effects of skyrocketing home prices on
communities, see an article by Rebecca Solnit,
Hollow City (as computer money flows
into San Francisco, the quirkiness and creativity drain out). A
cautionary tale for Northampton and other Valley towns.
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For Sale by Owners
Clients are
encouraged to relay to us any For Sale by Owner notices they may have seen on lawn
signs or in publications such as The Recorder of Greenfield (www.recorder.com)
or The
Daily Hampshire Gazette of Northampton (www.gazettenet.com), which we monitor
regularly.
See also the websites
http://www.ma4salebyowner.com and www.isoldmyhouse.com,
which include a number of For Sale by Owner (FSBO) listings for Hampshire and
Franklin counties. Here also please notify us of your interest in any FSBO
property and we will contact the owner and price out the property for you and
shepherd the deal to closing if it seems the right house for you. See
the FAQs for more on how exclusive buyer agents, unlike
traditional realtors, help their clients purchase FSBO properties, usually with
the owner paying the commission.
Note that it is risky for a buyer to
approach a FSBO without a
consultant who knows the market. A buyer can end up overpaying for the
property or buying into a situation where there are environmental health
issues or other difficult resale issues that were not disclosed to the buyers
before the sale. We spend a good part of our time with buyer clients playing
the devil's advocate, pointing out problems with properties, cautioning
them on this overheated market, etc.
We've saved buyers from situations where their
children's health may have been at risk, where they would have taken on more
work in a house than they could actually afford, where the house was so
overpriced (even in this market) that they would be taking on a debt burden
that could only hurt them financially when they sold the property, esp. if the
market bubble bursts in a few years.
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