Free Republic

Home prices keep climbing. It's another reason to let people build housing. But corrupt politicians sometimes prevent that. The little town of Edgewater, New Jersey, sits right across the Hudson River from Manhattan. A developer, Maxal Group, bought a dumpsite there and proposed building more than a thousand new waterfront apartments. The town said no. Why? The development would generate $12 million a year in taxes for Edgewater. To please the politicians, Maxal even offered to build parks and a school at no cost. But Edgewater Mayor Michael McPartland and his town council rejected the parks, school and extra tax...

Conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck listed his golf-community home in 2018 for $6.2 million; it's now $4.95 million. Take a look inside.

The Miami real estate slowdown is becoming a meltdown — with the most expensive areas getting hit hardest. The number of sales and prices in posh Miami Beach — home to many of the city's most expensive and highest-profile properties — fell during the first quarter, according to a new report. Meanwhile, inventory soared by roughly a third compared with the prior-year quarter. The report, released Thursday by Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers & Consultants, found the average sale price in Miami Beach and the nearby Barrier Islands fell 7.5 percent year over year to $905,252. The...

How do you reconcile these recent reports on housing? The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported a surge in pending sale contracts in May to the highest level since 2006. Simultaneously Bloomberg reported that mortgage applications fell to their lowest level in nineteen months. Cash must be king? According to NAR 33% of existing home sales in May were cash. What portion of those cash sales do you think were from first time home buyers? My guess would be somewhere between zero and one percent. The first time home buyer has always been the most important buyer in the market,...

The economy today, in this Fourth of July week for 2013, waits in breathless anticipation of our newest declaration of dependence. Sometime this week, jobs data, housing data and some other data export manufactured by the federal government will result in someone, somewhere- perhaps even in the stock market- doing something. And when that happens regulators, media mavens, talking heads, politicians, special interests, and Mayor Bloomberg, will all say with the pride of a collective: “See? We did that,” as if “nothing” would happen without the beneficent government first allowing it. So it goes today in the United States Senate,...

Who is Ed DeMarco? What is the FHFA? Even though it did not come entirely unexpected, the day has finally arrived. President Obama has decided to nominate Mel Watt instead of Ed DeMarco as the Director of the FHFA (Federal Housing Finance Administration). Most people have never heard of the FHFA, nor Mr. DeMarco. Who cares? Why should one care? You should actually all care. The real estate market has officially entered a new chapter. Analysts, economists, investors and homeowners, throw away everything you thought you knew about real estate and start all over. I would like to get right...

On paper, it sounds like a property to die for: 132 rooms, including 16 bedrooms and 35 bathrooms, with 28 fireplaces, a tennis court, a bowling alley and an attached garage spread out over 55,000 square feet on 18 acres of centrally located land. But the White House, as enviable a property as it is, hasn't been immune from the nation's housing crisis. As syndicated columnist Lew Sichelman first noticed, the property value of the White House has lost nearly a quarter of its value over the last three years, according to the real estate site Zillow. In fact, in...

An Irvine-based housing consultant said in a forecast released Tuesday that new home prices will go up in Orange County next year, but only by about 4.4 percent. "We foresee Year 2007 as being a stable year in terms of market conditions," a report by Real Estate Economics stated.

Sacramento -- After touting his budget plan to increase funding for education and transportation, the governor sounded a cautionary note. "It's important to remember, however, that our great good fortune is the result of a strong economy and a surging stock market. And anybody who follows the Dow, and particularly the Nasdaq, realizes how volatile these sources of funds are." The governor was not Arnold Schwarzenegger, but Gray Davis as he released his budget six years ago when state coffers were brimming with $12.3 billion in extra cash. But the money -- based on such volatile revenue sources as capital...

LANCASTER [California]- Prices paid for existing homes in the Antelope Valley rose more than 20% in the last year, while some areas of Santa Monica and Pasadena saw median home values fall 20%. Reports from the Data Quick News service support projections from the California Association of Realtors, or CAR, that the rate of home-price appreciation will moderate next year. Sales in 2006 will decline slightly from this year's record pace, according to the Association's "2006 Housing Market Forecast" released Sept. 20 to 22. That prediction appears to be coming true in Santa Clarita, where, of less than 100 existing...

Following today's Supreme Court decision and a great selling day on Wall Street, it may be time to sell your stocks soon and go cash only for awhile. I think there is a high probability of an intermediate down trend occurring in the near future, a leg down in the general market. Here are the reasons why I think it's time to sell: 1. Last week Thursday near market close, investment funds or insiders traded a large chunk. They all moved at the same time. Here is a brief list of what happened on 06/18/2005 at market close: MSFT (Microsoft)...