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August 2007 - Posts

Friday, August 31, 2007 1:01 PM

Government proposal floated for mortgage mess

The US Government is floating proposals to help stem the mortgage mess and keep large numbers of people from facing foreclosure. Of course, the stock market has been a mess of late and most interesting to me is the fact that investors leveraged their
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Thursday, August 30, 2007 12:44 PM

Buyers and sellers are paying attention to the media reports on housing differently

There are a few less buyers today shopping for homes in the Charleston South Carolina real estate market and there is far more inventory being offered for sale by sellers in the Charleston area than in previous years. I know that buyers in general feel
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 11:52 AM

Odds and ends

There were so many interesting tidbits of information in the past few days that I thought I might do a little recap of a few highlights. First of all, we had a full moon with a lunar eclipse on Monday night and I'm so glad that I'm a morning person
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Monday, August 27, 2007 12:29 PM

The headlines can be frightening

The Post and Courier is Charleston's daily paper. I don't generally read the paper any day but Saturday morning when my wife Polly and I have breakfast or lunch out at a restaurant if I am not working with a client. I like the Saturday paper and
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Friday, August 24, 2007 1:48 PM

Summerville High School football to be televised nationally on ESPN

Friday night lights move to Saturday for a high noon showdown between 2 of the premier high school football teams in the country as Summerville High School's Green Wave takes on visiting Booker T. Washington High School of Miami Florida. The game
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Thursday, August 23, 2007 6:27 AM

Bank of America invests $2 billion in Countrywide

Bank of America invested $2 billion in Countrywide. The investment was made in non voting convertible preferred securities and is apparently not preliminary to an attempted takeover of Countrywide which has been long rumored. "We hope this investment
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Wednesday, August 22, 2007 6:17 AM

Negotiating a lowball offer in today's market

The Charleston South Carolina real estate market has held up rather well despite the general downturn in the real estate industry and with fewer buyers looking at more inventory. But if you want a "deal" because you've heard how bad the
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Monday, August 20, 2007 7:18 AM

Historic Charleston

I show property throughout the Charleston South Carolina real estate market in the city and suburbs but the most interesting homes to show are found in Historic Charleston. The Peninsula of Historic Downtown Charleston has several thousand homes dating
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Saturday, August 18, 2007 5:46 AM

Charleston South Carolina real estate, the sky is falling, the sky is falling.

Is it? Not really, but it does make an excellent headline! Here is another article highlighting the problems in the current real estate market and mortgage market. Thankfully, for those of us in the Charleston South Carolina real estate market, we were
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 7 Comments
Friday, August 17, 2007 2:11 PM

The sky is not falling

During yesterday's wild day on Wall Street, I noticed a chart shown on CNBC that showed the mortgage problem was not as bad as the media seemed to make it out to be. While delinquencies on mortgages have increased and foreclosures are rising, not
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Friday, August 17, 2007 8:12 AM

Fed cuts rate at discount window by 50 basis points, stock market will soar

The Federal Reserve cut the rate at the discount window this morning. This is the rate that banks can borrow at and is aimed at normalizing liquidity concerns and was designed to restore calm to the global markets. Stock futures turned from down almost
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Thursday, August 16, 2007 9:07 AM

Homeowners associations and covenants and restrictions

Another Ask the Agent question. I got an email recently from someone who wondered why so many neighborhoods in the Charleston South Carolina real estate market have homeowners associations and covenants and restrictions. The bottom line. If you don't
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, August 14, 2007 1:14 PM

Pricing to sell your home in today's Charleston South Carolina real estate market

What are some sellers thinking? There are flippers who are flopping and sellers who still don't understand that you have to price your home correctly from the day you list in order to sell for the best possible price. An analysis of home sales in
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, August 13, 2007 2:24 PM

Mortgage tips for a smooth real estate transaction

With turbulence in the mortgage industry including the tightening of underwriting guidelines, some loan programs no longer available and lenders going out of business or unable to fund loans, it’s important to understand what you need to do if you
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Saturday, August 11, 2007 7:12 AM

Foolish Friday

Last Friday, we had Jim Cramer blow up on CNBC and this week, it seems like The Donald did his best impersonation of a fool. Cramer ranted and pleaded with the Fed to lower interest rates to save the world or at least Bear Stearns. It played heavily on
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Friday, August 10, 2007 7:07 AM

The news is always best at the top and worst at the bottom

And the news from the financial community around the world couldn't get much worse than what we've been hearing lately. It seems that nobody can place a value on their investments and nervous investors are unwilling to buy debt at any price. That
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Thursday, August 09, 2007 7:12 AM

Mortgage problems and real estate, Fox's Neal Cavuto talks with President Bush

While flipping through the television late yesterday afternoon, I came across Neal Cavuto on Fox in his daily closing piece, Common Sense. He was talking about his interview with President Bush earlier in the show and Bush's view on mortgage problems
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 4 Comments
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Wednesday, August 08, 2007 2:09 PM

Housing and mortgage update, are we near the bottom

With the recent unexpected demise of American Home Mortgage and builders reporting losses rather than profits and rumors of bankruptcy for a number of firms in both industries, are we near the bottom of the housing downturn. One positive sign is the magazine
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Monday, August 06, 2007 1:20 PM

Charleston South Carolina real estate market report, July 2007

I think you'll find some interesting trends in this month's Charleston South Carolina real estate market report. As usual, we'll start with the statistics and comment after. Unit Sales and Inventory Single Family Homes Month Sales 06 Sales
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 8 Comments
Monday, August 06, 2007 10:21 AM

If you are selling, what does your front lawn say about the rest of your house

The Charleston South Carolina real estate market is highly competitive today with lots of homes for sale. I just pulled the statistics from the MLS for my monthly Charleston market report which I'll post a little later today and inventory of single
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Sunday, August 05, 2007 3:12 PM

My 200th post and my birthday

Today is my birthday, what I'm referring to as my Heinz 57th (my wife Polly is originally from Pittsburgh) and it also is the 200th post to the Charleston real estate blog since I started writing back in November of last year. It has been a lot of
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Friday, August 03, 2007 1:02 PM

Are the number of foreclosures being overstated

Certainly, any foreclosure is terrible for all involved, the homeowner, the lender, the neighborhood. As I said before, any foreclosure is terrible for everyone. The mortgage market is currently in chaos and lenders are failing, loans that were committed
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Wednesday, August 01, 2007 1:22 PM

Can you have too much clothing in your walk in closet

I found out last night. Yes. At about 3AM, the crash startled me from my peaceful dreams and I woke up to find that a 6 foot row of clothes and the corner bracket fell from the wall of my wife's walk in closet. It was scary loud! I think I can actually
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments