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September 2007 - Posts

Saturday, September 29, 2007 3:29 PM

Rainy season starts early, Active Rain vs. Move.com

Rainy season started early this year in Seattle with a lawsuit filed by Active Rain against Move.com which owns Realtor.com, the real estate website of the National Association of Realtors (NAR). It's all about real estate blogs. Active Rain is an
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Saturday, September 29, 2007 7:51 AM

Don't flinch, a buyer strategy for today's real estate market

Greg Swann at the BloodhoundBlog introduces flinch, a new buyer strategy (game) that takes the strategy sellers used during the housing boom and applies it to today's buyers market. The Charleston South Carolina real estate market has plenty of motivated
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Friday, September 28, 2007 6:36 AM

Will the last flipper please close the door on the way out of the building

Back in May, I wrote about a home apparently bought by a flipper but destined to flop in Mount Pleasant. Click here for the original story . Purchased for $650,000 and put on the market with no indicated improvements at $699,900 which was 7.7% higher
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, September 27, 2007 4:08 PM

It costs how much to ...

… walk to the beach, have a water view, live on the golf course or buy a historic home in Charleston. I get inquiries on my website every day about the Charleston South Carolina real estate market and once in a while, what you want and what you
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, September 25, 2007 6:31 PM

The national housing market

Today was a big day for reports on the state of the housing market on a national basis. I suppose I am a little spoiled because within the first few days of the month, I can gather all the statistics on the Charleston South Carolina real estate market
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Monday, September 24, 2007 6:19 PM

Sell cheap, buy cheaper

I had an interesting conversation today with a very nice couple whose home I'll be listing in the next day or two. They were concerned about how to price their house considering the buyers market we currently are finding in the Charleston South Carolina
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Friday, September 21, 2007 11:59 AM

How does the rate cut by the Fed affect mortgage rates

An excellent ask the agent question. What happened to mortgage rates in light of the Federal Reserve interest rate cut the other day, did mortgage rates go down? Would you be surprised if I told you they went up and how can that be because that is exactly
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, September 20, 2007 6:57 PM

Wall Street Journal charts - after the mortgage boom

Simply fantastic charts from Wall Street Journal Online, interactive and very interesting, I hope it stays available to you and doesn't require subscription. Click here . Hat tip, Barry Ritholtz, The Big Picture . The Charleston South Carolina real
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Thursday, September 20, 2007 12:26 PM

More on home builder discounts

In a previous post, I mentioned Hovnanian’s “Deal of the Century” where they slashed prices to sell a lot of homes last weekend. While most homebuilders have used incentives rather than discounts in an attempt to maintain prices in their
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Thursday, September 20, 2007 11:25 AM

Real estate - supply, demand and prices

Chad Brand writing in Seeking Alpha made some excellent points regarding the housing market. "The main problem with the housing market is supply and demand and excessive pricing. Despite press reports to the contrary, most people can get a mortgage
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, September 18, 2007 4:05 PM

Are you flexible enough to sell your house

The Charleston South Carolina real estate market has a lot of inventory and fewer buyers than before. This is not news. For about a year, this has been the market except that there is even more inventory and fewer buyers. Pricing your home for sale from
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, September 18, 2007 1:59 PM

Federal Reserve acts decisively in lowering rates

The Federal Reserve board led by Ben Bernanke took decisive action today in lowering the Fed Funds rate by a half point and additionally, lowered the discount rate as well by another half point. Expectations for a rate cut did not anticipate this aggressive
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, September 17, 2007 12:28 PM

More lending insanity, this time it is credit cards for subprime borrowers

In an interesting article in Seeking Alpha, Some Banks Never Learn , Markham Lee said, “A recent article in the Boston Globe discusses how banks have increased the number of credit card offers direct towards subprime borrowers, whilst decreasing
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Monday, September 17, 2007 8:51 AM

More on mortgage delinquency and foreclosure

I recently wrote a post about statistics that seem to indicate that every house in America was headed to foreclosure. I just noticed an article by Kenneth Harvey, writing for the Washington Post that confirmed my suspicions about the interpretation of
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Friday, September 14, 2007 8:22 AM

Was Alan Greenspan to blame for the mortgage mess

Alan Greenspan is either loved or hated for how he handled the economy as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank. Beginning in 1987, he was thrown into the fire quickly with the October stock market crash. He is credited with leading the economy to
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 3 Comments
Thursday, September 13, 2007 8:06 AM

Coastal South Carolina counties are growing rapidly

The Charleston South Carolina real estate market and coastal South Carolina have some of the fastest growing counties in the nation according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Locally, Dorchester County including Summerville and parts of North Charleston ranked
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Wednesday, September 12, 2007 3:46 PM

Mortgages today

It was bound to happen, my favorite source for financial news has introduced a new daily column. Marketwatch is now offering a daily roundup of subprime and credit-crunch news. Click here for today's stories. Speaking of bound to happen, I'm surprised
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, September 11, 2007 10:48 AM

9/11, we should not forget

6 years ago today, all of us experienced the most horrific terrorist acts in the United States. I remember the morning well, reports of a small plane hitting the World Trade Center, then watching in horror as a large jet hit the second tower, immediately
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Monday, September 10, 2007 7:21 AM

Statistical differences in housing values

I noticed an interesting article by Kenneth Harvey, nationally syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, whose column is featured every Saturday in the Charleston Post and Courier real estate section talking about the difference in house values depending
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Friday, September 07, 2007 5:58 AM

Is every house in America headed to foreclosure or is the bark worse than the bite

The headlines are bleak and you might think that every house in America was headed into foreclosure. According to an article by Reuters, the rate of home loans in foreclosure rose to a record high in the second quarter of 2007. The Mortgage Bankers Association
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
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Thursday, September 06, 2007 7:01 AM

Charleston South Carolina real estate market report, August 2007

The Charleston South Carolina real estate market seems to have settled into a steady pattern as you'll notice when viewing the statistics for August and the recent trends mostly remain unchanged. Once again, we'll present the statistics first
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Wednesday, September 05, 2007 1:23 PM

Why are mortgage lenders continuing to get in trouble

My mortgage is with Countrywide and many of my clients have used Countrywide to finance the purchases of their home. While there has been significant bad press regarding Countrywide and they have been exposed to losses from bad decisions made during the
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 5 Comments
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Tuesday, September 04, 2007 9:06 AM

Charleston home price appreciation by zip code 2000 - 2006

The Charleston South Carolina real estate market has grown significantly in the number of sales and the average selling price between 2000 and 2006. As an overall market, unit sales climbed by 61.7% from the year 2000 to 2006 (and while 2006 was a pretty
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
Sunday, September 02, 2007 8:45 AM

Searching for a home online, to register or not, that is the question

I am still amazed that real estate websites that exist only to collect potential buyers or sellers names so that they can sell them to real estate professionals still exist. I was watching something on television recently and noticed another commercial
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments