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

To: John Vosilla who wrote (305621)	5/18/2011 8:13:21 PM
From: Broken_Clock	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Cornell "walks the talk" ZerO doesn't.

To: John Vosilla who wrote (305621)	5/18/2011 8:15:07 PM
From: joseffy	Respond to of 306849

Cornel West is obviously a racist.

To: John Vosilla who wrote (305621)	5/18/2011 9:21:09 PM
From: Broken_Clock	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

Belafonte was asked by host Amy Goodman whether he'd used his occasional access to directly share his many critical and valuable public policy insights with the White House. Belafonte replied that his only access to the president has been for a few seconds at a time, not long enough for any substantive discussion. But, he said, at one such event President Obama approached him to inquire when Belafonte and Cornel West were going “to cut me some slack.” “What makes you think we haven't?” Belafonte replied to the president? At this point the brief encounter was over. blackagendareport.com

To: John Vosilla who wrote (305621)	5/19/2011 9:39:14 AM
From: joseffy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Editorial: Why Won’t Media Stand Up To White House? .............................................................. 05/18/2011 investors.com The Obama administration has picked another fight with a dissident newspaper, kicking the Boston Herald out of the press pool on an unprecedented claim that its coverage is unfair. Who died and elected them judge? If the mainstream media had any gumption at all, they would vigorously protest the strange, new self-appointed arbiter of "fair" press coverage as an implicit threat to their own capacity to cover the news fairly. What the White House has done by telling the Boston Herald it can no longer send a pool reporter to cover local campaign events on behalf of the media is another baby step toward state control of the media, using the carrot of access against the stick of exile. Outside the likes of, say, Ecuador, this is a first. As it stands, the Boston Herald is on its own, with its media colleagues in other organizations largely silent as a vindictive White House press office gets away with determining what's "fair." It's not as if the Herald was making up stories — as the New York Times or Washington Post have been caught doing. Its "crime" to the White House was an unrelated editorial decision to run former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's opinion piece on "the Obama misery index" on its front page two months ago. Seems the newly self-appointed goons of "fairness" never noticed that what the former governor thinks is of particular interest to Massachusetts readers. Nor did it notice that the Boston Herald has been unusually hard on Romney in both its news and editorial coverage in the past. "What are you afraid of, Mr. President?" the Herald's Joe Battenfeld wrote. It's part of an ever-widening pattern of media abuse. Just two weeks ago, the White House duked it out with the San Francisco Chronicle, a lefty paper in a lefty town but one with an independent voice. Chronicle reporter Carla Marinucci was threatened with the same booting the Herald got because of White House displeasure at her filming of a bunch of looney left protestors improbably criticizing Obama. "I get that all powerful people and institutions want to control their image and their message. That's part of their job, to create a mythology that allows them to continue being powerful," wrote editor Phil Bronstein. "But part of the press' job is to do the opposite, to strip away the cloaks and veneers." Meanwhile, an Orlando Sentinel pool reporter was stuffed into a closet and held against his will on the Joe Biden campaign trail, while the Pleasanton (Calif.) Weekly was warned by the White House its coverage of first lady Michelle Obama was insufficiently flattering. The media silence over these repeated violations of press freedom is baffling. Can the fact that 30 mainstream media outlets have been co-opted by $48 million in spending by George Soros, a top campaign ally of President Obama, have something to do with this? Or is the urge to fawn over Obama more important than covering the news without fear or favor? The one thing that's obvious is that the media continue to take it with little push-back. And as they do, the bouncers of the White House press office grow bolder.

To: John Vosilla who wrote (305621)	5/19/2011 10:50:57 AM
From: Jim McMannis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Vosilla, you ARE the problem! LOL All-Cash Buyers Preventing Collapse of Housing Markets The "normal" housing market in most major metropolitan areas is shrinking, and this won't be turning around any time soon. minyanville.com I’ve asserted in previous writings that buyers paying all-cash for properties have been keeping some of the worst bubble markets from collapsing. Inside Mortgage Finance, which surveys roughly 3,000 brokers each month and issues a monthly report, revealed at the end of March that a record 33.7% of property purchases nationwide were all-cash. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) conducts an Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey annually. The latest survey covering 2010 found that a record 59% of investors paid all-cash for their property. That figure was only 32% in 2006 and a mere 17% in 2004 according to previous NAR surveys. For Broward County on the Florida east coast, the Southeast Florida MLS reported that a record 69% of all February property sales were all-cash purchases. Zillow.com revealed at the end of February that 54% of all sales in the three south Florida counties of Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach were purchased with cash in the fourth quarter of 2010. In California, 30% of all 2010 sales were cash purchases. According to the highly-regarded California blog, drhousingbubble.com, the average in that state over the last 10 years was a mere 12.9%. Take a look at this amazing chart showing cash sales in Phoenix. Notice that while cash purchases have been a substantial portion of Phoenix sales since early 2009, it reached a record 50% in January of this year. Who are these all-cash buyers? Leif Swanson, the creator of this chart and an active Phoenix broker, explained to me that many were over 50 with plenty of liquid assets who could not stand the interest rates they were getting. This was also told to me by Jim McClelland, Sr., a major property “redeveloper” in Chicago who resold many of his foreclosure purchases to all-cash investors. Most were cash buyers who were 50+ years old and were tired of earning interest rates of 1% or less. Can you blame these 50+ savers, especially those nearing retirement? Take at look at what has happened to their interest income because of the Fed’s policies. A substantial number of these savers are what I consider to be reluctant real estate investors. They are being pulled into this arena by the plunge in their interest return. I strongly suspect that many have little sense of how much risk they are taking with their capital. Consider this example from a March 1 article in the online Palm Beach Post about all-cash investors. One retired couple decided to buy a three-bedroom home for $149,000 in cash because they believed a home would bring a better return on their money than a CD or other investment. The wife said that “any kind of interest income is so low right now, we might as well put it into a house.” She went on to predict that “If prices go down any more, they’re not likely to go down appreciably.” Had she read the second issue of my Housing Market Report and its focus on Miami-Dade County, they might have reconsidered their decision to buy. Or take this example from an early February article in the Wall Street Journal. A 62-year-old piano teacher saw a three-bedroom bungalow that was listed as a short sale last summer in Georgia. The desperate sellers had dropped the original asking price of $159,000 to $129,000 and then to $79,900. Sensing that the market was awful, she offered $50,000. The sellers accepted $52,000 in cash. While these purchases may make good sense, they aren’t necessarily smart investments. On April 25, I spoke again to noted real estate writer, San Diego State University lecturer and investor Leonard Baron about purchasing investment properties with cash. He reiterated that these investors must do a careful due diligence analysis to see if the property makes financial sense. Link to his terrific 7-page due diligence checklist on his website for the tool to enable you to do this – professorbaron.com. On the right side of his homepage, you will see the table of contents for his book. Link to Chapter One and it will take you to the checklist. Just scroll down a little until you see it. You can print it out and then use it for your analysis. You’ll be glad you did. Would most of these older, all-cash buyers be searching for investment properties now if interest rates had not been pushed down so dramatically by the Fed? Think about it. If you were either close to retirement or actually retired, would you be plunking down anywhere from $50,000 to $1 million or more in cash on a house or condo if the interest rates on your Treasury securities, CDs, bonds, or money market funds were at historical norms? The vast majority of these cash buyers (excluding perhaps some foreign investors) are not speculators. If they can land a decent tenant, the investment might make good sense. Yet do they really have a good idea about the state of the housing market where they are investing their hard-earned savings? If I thought they did, I would not have launched my Housing Market Report. On the basis of my in-depth research, it’s quite clear to me that the “normal” housing market in most major metropolitan areas is shrinking. The percentage of sales in these markets which are distressed properties – either foreclosures or short sales – is climbing steadily. Conversely, the percentage of homeowners wanting to sell who still have equity left in their property is declining. My goal is to inform readers why this will not turn around anytime soon. For much more from Keith Jurow, see his Housing Market Report. Keith provides actionable data, charts, in-depth analysis and specific advice to help investors make better property decisions. Learn more.

To: John Vosilla who wrote (305621)	5/19/2011 11:05:40 AM
From: Jim McMannis	Respond to of 306849

10 States with a Backlog of Distressed Homes Thttp://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2011/05/18/10-States-Distressed-Homes-Flooding-The-Market-For-Years.aspx May 18, 2011Several states in the U.S. are facing a multi-year backlog of distressed homes, ready to keep prices weak for months to come, according to the latest real estate market report from CoreLogic. Their research shows that while home prices may be rising in some places, or at least stabilizing, there's plenty of supply out there ready to keep prices depressed for years to come. Further, the negative equity levels, or how underwater people are on their mortgages, is staggering in many states making it even harder for home owners to move on from their investments. #10 Marland Supply of distressed homes: 25.5 months House price index (year-over-year): Down 5.2% Negative equity share: 23.7 #9 Minnesota Supply of distressed homes: 27.2 months House price index (year-over-year): Down 6.1% Negative equity share: 16.0% #8 Indiana Supply of distressed homes: 29 months House price index (year-over-year): Down 2.1% Negative equity share: 24.8% #7 New York Supply of distressed homes: 30.3 months House price index (year-over-year): Up 1.9% Negative equity share: 7.2% #6 Georgia Supply of distressed homes: 31.2 months House price index (year-over-year): Down 6.3% Negative equity share: 29.8% #5 Washington D.C. Supply of distressed homes: 32.4 months House price index (year-over-year): Down 3.5% Negative equity share: 14.7% #4 Maine Supply of distressed homes: 35.7 months House price index (year-over-year): Down 3.3% Negative equity share: 8.6% #3 Illinois Supply of distressed homes: 36.2% House price index (year-over-year): Down 6.5% Negative equity share: 21.3% #2 New Jersey Supply of distressed home: 46.1 months House price index (year-over-year): Down 1.8% Negative equity share: 16.1% #1 Mississippi Supply of distressed home: 70.6 months House price index (year-over-year): Down 3.9% Negative equity share: 24.9% Read More at the Business Insider