In Part 1, we started the countdown towards May 1, the Day After. In Part 2, we offer ten suggestions for REALTORS to stay in business when the dust settles.
If the housing market fell nearly 17% the month after the original housing tax credits were supposed to end, what’s going to happen when they really do come to an end? Are REALTORS ready for the Day After?
FHA is about to change the rules for backing future loans. Will REALTORS be ready when the government-backed subsidies get harder to come by?
Some questions Matthew Ferrara thinks REALTORS should be asking of FHA – before it’s too late.
The real estate and mortgage industries are paying the price for Fannie Mae’s free-lunch fraud. Looks like the people who couldn’t afford “affordable housing” most weren’t just consumers, but its most vocal advocates.
So the government has launched another wildly popular subsidy program with its Cash for Clunkers program, offering consumers up to $4500 for trading in their classic cars for purchasing a new one. In fact, the program is so popular that more than 250,000 trades have already been made and the original $1 billion earmarked by [...]
Yesterday, President Obama announced he was prepared to break the law. After blaming the senior debt bondholders of Chrysler for pushing the company into Chapter 11, he sanctioned a plan to abrogate their covenants and force them to take pennies on their loaned dollar. No matter that their bonds were secured by the company’s assets. [...]
Yesterday, Chrysler announced it was going to suspend production at ALL of its North American factories until mid January. This was excellent news – for those of us who believe business is a rational process of allocating scarce resources to meet consumer demand. Others may think it’s just a political ploy to get politicians to [...]
Well, Bailout Nation (as CNBC’s Larry Kudlow calls it) is at it again – this time trying to jam a $34 billion dollar “loan” with “conditions” through Congress but with a twist. Rather than just giving the money to the Little Three American Auto Companies (who, by the way, we could purchase for less than [...]
I think I’ll apply for the job as Federal Treasurer next month. Apparently, all you need is an abacus and a few simple thoughts and you can at least blow a trillion or so taxpayer dollars. If you’ve actually studied economics, – well, hey, maybe consumers can just fix this mess by making one small [...]
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
- Mark Twain, a Biography
If at first you don’t succeed, try to destroy the economy again. That seems to be Congress’ motto these days, as they prepare to vote on [...]
Only in the United States Congress can a plan to destroy the housing industry and credit markets be called a “rescue” plan. It’s almost as farcical as calling “card check” bill that effectively kills secret voting for unions a “secret ballot bill.” Far more troubling, however, is the fact that the elements of the plan [...]
I just received my copy of the 2008 Annual Member Profile from the National Association of REALTORS. Amazing – just amazing – how many of you aren’t going to be around next year. But this isn’t another requiem for the change-resistant REALTOR. Believe it or not, this posting will explore a simple suggestion that NAR [...]
Is it possible that the Federal Reserve, despite all of its protestations to the opposite, really hates the housing industry? Could Bernanke and the rest of the Fed cronies not only be totally incompetent, but actually have a vendetta against the middle class? Is there any evidence that the Fed is out to absolutely destroy [...]
