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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Smiling Bob who wrote (140883)	8/13/2008 12:05:05 PM
From: Jim McMannis	Respond to of 306849

Hungry Real Estate Brokers Forget Own Role In Causing Bubble On Realty Road, It’s a Rough Ride newsweek.com Real-estate agents are an optimistic bunch, but it's hard to put a positive spin on the nation's deepening housing bust. In the past year, the average U.S. home has lost 16 percent of its value, and the number of homes changing hands has dropped by one third since the market peak in 2005. Since most agents make money only when houses actually sell (most earn no salary), that's leading to a sense of desperation in some hard-hit regions. In one Los Angeles-area brokerage office, an agent told NEWSWEEK, the outlook is so bad they've even set up a food pantry with pasta and canned goods so struggling agents won't go hungry. Consider the scene at Prudential California Realty in Cypress, a community in well-heeled Orange County. Manager Christine McGowan says she's watched a number of her employees lose their own homes to foreclosure. Among them is Michael Vasquez, a veteran broker, who lost his—and his marriage—when financial stress contributed to his divorce; he was forced to move in with a friend. He hasn't taken to moonlighting, yet. But colleague Chrysteen Bandy has: she works three hours each evening selling Marriott time-share vacations. "It's been a major struggle for everyone," says McGowan. "I just don't think people fully realize what [agents] are going through." In Florida, at the center of the housing bust, conditions aren't much better. Jack Meeks, owner of Real Estate Professionals of America, has downsized from 123 agents to 55—and the entire office is selling just 10 homes a month. In some parts of the state, analyst Jack McCabe says, homes are selling at a rate of less than one per year per agent—and nearly a third of sales are foreclosures, which are often done without an agent. "The truth is, [agents] are getting destitute," he says. Meanwhile, membership in the National Association of Realtors has dipped by just 7 percent since 2006, to 1.3 million. And it's not clear those ranks will fall much further, since many agents sell homes only part time, or rely on a spouse's income to support them through down markets. If nothing else, the current market may help counter the boom-time image that selling houses was an easy ticket to quick riches. The reality is a whole lot tougher.

To: Smiling Bob who wrote (140883)	8/13/2008 12:09:48 PM
From: Jim McMannis	Respond to of 306849

The Housing Crash Payoff: More Affordable Housing, More Disposable Income (August 11, 2008) oftwominds.com Rather than wringing our hands in horror at the crash of housing prices, we should be cheering wildly and hoping they drop another 50%. Why? Because the percentage of income we've been paying for housing has been way too high. As Americans have had to spend an ever higher percentage of their incomes for overvalued housing (renters and owners alike), then they've had less to spend or save. Put another way: how many hours did you have to work to pay your rent or mortgage in 1960? Or: how many loaves of bread could your monthly rent or mortgage buy in 1960? Consider this chart:

To: Smiling Bob who wrote (140883)	8/13/2008 2:52:39 PM
From: Peter V	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

don't look now, but AMZN is green. Kindle sales must be hot! S&P nearly flat too. I guess we're sabed!

To: Smiling Bob who wrote (140883)	8/13/2008 6:11:55 PM
From: Smiling Bob	Respond to of 306849

Sign of things to come for AMZN? --- World's tallest woman dies in Indiana at age 53 By DEANNA MARTIN, Associated Press Writer2 hours, 59 minutes ago A woman who grew to be 7 feet, 7 inches tall and was recognized as the world's tallest female died early Wednesday, a friend said. She was 53. Sandy Allen, whose used her height to inspire schoolchildren to accept those who are different, died at a nursing home in her hometown of Shelbyville, family friend Rita Rose said. The cause of death was not yet known. Allen had been hospitalized in recent months as she suffered from a recurring blood infection, along with diabetes, breathing troubles and kidney failure, Rose said. In London, Guinness World Records spokesman Damian Field confirmed Wednesday that Allen was still listed as the tallest woman. Some Web sites cite a 7-foot-9 woman from China. Coincidentally, Allen lived in the same nursing home, Heritage House Convalescent Center, as 115-year-old Edna Parker, whom Guinness has recognized as the world's oldest person since August 2007. Allen said a tumor caused her pituitary gland to produce too much growth hormone. She underwent an operation in 1977 to stop further growth. But she was proud of her height, Rose said. "She embraced it," she said. "She used it as a tool to educate people." Allen appeared on television shows and spoke to church and school groups to bring youngsters her message that it was all right to be different. Allen weighed 6-1/2 pounds when she was born in June 1955. By the age of 10 she had grown to be 6-foot-3, and by age 16 she was 7-1. She wrote to Guinness World Records in 1974, saying she would like to get to know someone her own height. "It is needless to say my social life is practically nil and perhaps the publicity from your book may brighten my life," she wrote. The recognition as the world's tallest woman helped Allen accept her height and become less shy, Rose said. "It kind of brought her out of her shell," Rose said. "She got to the point where she could joke about it." In the 1980s, she appeared for several years at the Guinness Museum of World Records in Niagara Falls, Ontario. "I'll never forget the old Japanese man who couldn't speak English, so he decided to feel for himself if I was real," she recalled with a chuckle when she moved back to Indiana in 1987. "At Guinness there were days when I felt like I was doing a freak show," she said. "When that feeling came too often, I knew I had to come back home." Difficulty with mobility had forced Allen to curtail her public speaking in recent years, Rose said. She had suffered from diabetes and other ailments and used a wheelchair to get around. Rose is working to set up a scholarship fund in Allen's name, with proceeds going to Shelbyville High School. "She loved talking to kids because they would ask more honest questions," Rose said. "Adults would kind of stand back and stare and not know how to approach her."