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June 2011 - Posts

Thursday, June 30, 2011 6:48 AM

Yesterday's IDX search problems fixed, all better now!

Yesterday, anyone searching for Charleston homes for sale on my websites encountered frustrating slow to load pages due to technical issues but the great team at IDX Broker got everything taken care of and everything is all better now. We'd all like
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 7:19 AM

What's wrong with the S&P Case - Shiller index

... other than homeowners reading the headlines seem to get depressed on the last Tuesday of the month when the Case - Shiller index is released. There is a lot of computer power going into the Case - Shiller index which details home prices based on repeat
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 6:37 AM

HOAs foreclose on delinquent homeowners

... and you'll be surprised who's snapping some of these homes up. From Florida, one of the foreclosure capitals of America, a really interesting story at TampaBay.com about Homeowner Associations that are foreclosing on delinquent homeowners
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 2 Comments
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Monday, June 27, 2011 6:29 AM

Charleston mortgage report [As the pendulum swings]

... toward tighter mortgage lending, the WSJ reports that "the nation's 10 largest mortgage lenders denied 26.8 percent of loan applications in 2010, an increase from 23.5 percent in 2009". Just the other day, I asked, Can you qualify for
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Saturday, June 25, 2011 7:24 AM

Charleston airport traffic soars

In what shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, traffic at the Charleston airport has soared due in no small part to the arrival of Southwest Airlines serving the Charleston market. Warren Wise at the Post and Courier reports traffic is up almost 32 percent
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Friday, June 24, 2011 8:03 AM

Charleston mortgage report: can your qualify for a mortgage loan

Long gone are the days when simply being able to "fog a mirror" was good enough to get a mortgage loan. We all know where that led when lenders were tripping over themselves giving loans to anyone. And as is always the case, when a market corrects,
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Thursday, June 23, 2011 7:37 AM

Floods and flood insurance

While having lunch at a restaurant yesterday, one of the televisions was tuned to the news and it was amazing that 25 percent of the population of Minot South Dakota was being evacuated due to record flooding. You have to hope that most of those people
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, June 21, 2011 9:11 AM

If today is the first day of Summer in Charleston

... then what was yesterday other than the last day of spring with a record high over 100 for the date. Actually, Charleston tends to have two summers, the early summer which begins sometime in May and extends through July when it is blazing hot but dry.
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Monday, June 20, 2011 7:16 AM

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens

There was a wonderful photo and article by Robert Behre in the Post and Courier about Magnolia Plantation and Gardens that reaffirms what most of us have known for a long time, that Magnolia is indeed a historical treasure.
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Sunday, June 19, 2011 7:12 AM

In honor of my dad, Happy Father's Day

The US Open and Father's Day go together perfectly for me. My dad loved golf and here's a picture of my dad (left) playing at the Western Open Pro-Am in the sixties in Chicago along with Dave Marr (center) who went on to win the PGA and later
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
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Friday, June 17, 2011 6:54 AM

[Short sales] What's the real story

There are a lot of myths regarding short sales. As I've said on a few occasions, the word short sale is an oxymoron because a short sale is never short (in terms of length of time) and doesn't always result in a sale. Yes, there certainly are
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, June 16, 2011 6:58 AM

Charleston real estate market report, sales, inventory and home prices, May 2011

All in all, another pretty good month for the Charleston real estate market and I'll sure be happy when we no longer have to talk about comparisons with the home buyer tax credit incentive of last year but I fear we'll probably include it in our
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, June 15, 2011 8:17 AM

It's a great time to buy a home now

... and before you say isn't that something like that famous ad from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) from a few years ago or like that typical spin the NAR seems to put on not so great monthly statistics, there have been several articles
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Tuesday, June 14, 2011 6:56 AM

[Price reductions] How home prices tend to spiral down

When you're selling your home, you basically want to position it to be the next home sold and you do that by not just looking at previously sold homes in your neighborhood but by looking at other active listings and pricing accordingly. After all,
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, June 13, 2011 7:16 AM

202 Dandelion White Gables Summerville SC reduced $10k to $149,990

These sellers are motivated and serious about selling their home at 202 Dandelion in White Gables Summerville SC RIGHT NOW. They have just reduced the price by $10k to $149,990. This is NOT a short sale or a foreclosure. This home is beautiful, it is
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Sunday, June 12, 2011 6:12 AM

That's a nice garage, is there a home for sale too

I'm not the world's greatest real estate photographer but there are several angles to consider when photographing a home, left, right, straight and from above. Since online house hunters who search the Charleston MLS are just as interested in
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Saturday, June 11, 2011 7:30 AM

Cheaper homes hit hardest by price declines

... is the headline of an article by MarketWatch and I'm fairly certain that owners of what I call less expensive homes might prefer their home to be called that rather than cheap. But I wouldn't doubt that to be the case because it really wasn't
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Friday, June 10, 2011 7:16 AM

Charleston mortgage rates hit 2011 lows

The bad news on the economy is good news for Charleston home buyers and homeowners who might be considering refinancing their mortgage since mortgage rates are now quoted at the lows for this year. Here's more on the story from the WSJ . One of my
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, June 08, 2011 7:27 AM

[Duh] jobs are good for the housing market, here's even more proof

We know that jobs are good for the housing market, you need not look further than the Charleston real estate market which has done very nicely in part due to the many Boeing employees relocating to Charleston to work at the new Boeing 787 assembly facility.
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 1 Comments
Tuesday, June 07, 2011 6:30 AM

Real estate or WeinerGate? Today's answer should be obvious

Let's go with the twit. Here's another one for the hall of shame, the one and only Anthony Weiner of NY is the most recent politician whose sexual misadventures got him in trouble. And if you wondered why government efforts to get the economy
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Monday, June 06, 2011 7:21 AM

Summer attire for Charleston Realtors

... is most definitely casual (at least for me). It consists of shorts, flip flops and lots of polo's. Actually, it's my spring and fall attire as well and with Charleston's mild winters, I've been known to wear shorts on a nice day in
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Saturday, June 04, 2011 8:15 AM

Charleston foreclosures for every style and budget

... can be a very good deal and let's face it, who doesn't want a deal today anyway whether you are buying a house or shopping for groceries. From beautiful executive homes to handyman special fixer uppers to nice homes in nice neighborhoods,
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Friday, June 03, 2011 7:15 AM

202 Dandelion White Gables Open House this Saturday and Sunday 2-4

It's the National and Lowcountry Open House Weekend and 202 Dandelion will be open this weekend both Saturday and Sunday from 2 to 4. Come out to White Gables in Summerville and see this charming home. It's not a short sale or a foreclosure, it's
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Thursday, June 02, 2011 6:59 AM

Some price reductions seem just meaningless

Take a look at these two price reductions I just noticed in the Charleston MLS as I browsed the "hot sheet" this morning. (The hot sheet lists every change in the Charleston MLS: new listings, back on market, price adjustments, homes that went
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments
Wednesday, June 01, 2011 6:46 AM

Charleston hurricane season 2011

... begins today. Forecasts for this year's hurricane season call for a slightly higher than average number of storms but we all know that averages don't matter, it's just one storm that might matter. And we've been very fortunate that
Posted by Howard Arnoff | 0 Comments