Politics

Fannie Mae is cost cutting

In The News

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Just got a newsflash via my email subscription to Inman.com, a real estate industry news source. Fannie Mae has launched a pilot program in three markets in which it’s only accepting offers on properties in its real estate owned (REO) inventory when they are first submitted online by agents representing buyers. Test markets are Orlando, [...]

19 November 2010 Read the full article →

Phoenix’s reverse traffic lanes: vote!

Central Phoenix

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(image credit to Stock Exchange user http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1280927; hat tip to Downtown Phoenix Voices.org for leading me to the survey) The City of Phoenix is offering a survey on the usefulness or danger of their “reverse traffic lanes” on 7th Avenue and 7th Street. I personally think these reverse lanes are an innovative method of handling [...]

25 October 2010 Read the full article →

Arizona crime rates up? Not really.

In The News

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Yesterday a local talk radio station aired a long interview with a local expert criminologist and a 20-year veteran Sergeant of the Phoenix Police Department. Campaigning local politicians talking about a rash of murders in the desert, but the FBI Crime Index shows crime sharply down statewide and in Phoenix since 2005. The FBI statistics [...]

24 September 2010 Read the full article →

Phoenix-area real estate coming back soon?

Op Ed

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A client who’s also a friend emailed me through LinkedIn the other day. He said, David: How’s the market going for you? Do you see residential real estate coming back anytime soon? Thought our readers might be interested in my answer. Heather: Sadly, no, I don’t see it coming back anytime soon. Earlier this year [...]

23 August 2010 Read the full article →

Are CFL bulbs dangerous?

Green Living

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(image courtesy of http://www.ipaa.org/Blog/?p=301) There’s a lot of kerfluffle around the Interwebs lately about the supposedly dangerous levels of mercury released if you break a CFL light bulb. I believe the most widely spread story crazy Internet rumor is about a woman in Maine who broke a CFL bulb in a bedroom, was quoted $2,000 [...]

30 April 2010 Read the full article →

Your Federal Government – fashionably late to the party

Foreclosures

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I gave President Obama some advice (over a year ago) on how to fix the foreclosure epidemic: President Obama to focus on Foreclosures (published on 2/18/2009) and OButter’s Plan – the Real Solution (published on 2/23/2009) My 2 key points, boiled down to a couple sentence each: 1. If the bailout, loan modification, or whatever [...]

26 March 2010 Read the full article →

Cramdowns

Op Ed

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Here’s a thought for the day, courtesy of the recent Congressional hearings on the revised plans for spending the bailout money. Some folks are recommending that bankruptcy courts be allowed to renegotiate home mortgage terms. Chris Dodd, in particular, all but said “We’ll make this happen, even if we have to wait until the new [...]

14 November 2008 Read the full article →

The Mother of All Bailouts

In The News

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Of course the federal bailout is all anyone’s talking about today. I’m a smart cookie, but I don’t pretend to be smart enough to understand (much less explain) all the in’s and out’s of what’s cooking in Washington’s financial stewpot. No matter how the details shake out I think the bailout is a positive thing [...]

22 September 2008 Read the full article →