There’s not a day that goes by without hearing news about a security breach or incident involving large companies like Equifax and Marriot; but what about incidents that are rarely publicized but just as damaging? Wouldn’t you like to know if an incompetent vendor lost your email or other personal information? I would, and I …Read more
Affordability is the big issue in housing today. From 2010 to 2017, median household income rose from $49,445 to $61,372, up 24.1 percent. Median home prices, however, jumped from $172,400 to $259,600, a gain of 50.6 percent. Home values in this eight-year interval rose at more than double the rate of income, literally pricing many …Read more
Interest rates are dropping while temperatures are rising and that likely means a strong homebuying season coming our way. Along with the recent increase in real estate sales activity, we’re also seeing more activity on the business and technology fronts. Here’s the latest: Keller Williams becomes an iBuyer starting in the Dallas/Fort Worth markets. The …Read more
When was the last time you picked up an encyclopedia, clipped coupons in a newspaper, mailed a letter or, for that matter, did your Christmas shopping in person or even went into the local branch office of the bank? For most, these activities are either a thing of the past or things they only hear …Read more
If you’ve ever received an extortion email attack, it may have left you wondering: How do criminals get my email address? Let me explain how it works. There are some services, both legal and illegal, that collect valid business email addresses to use for their own purposes. Those that are collected legally are usually …Read more
Just like a recipe in the kitchen, adding jobs, mixing in wage increases while monitoring inflation gives a pretty good idea of the end results. Jobs are everything to an economy. As usual, I invoke the TINSTAANREM axiom — There Is No Such Thing As A National Real Estate Market or a National Economy. The …Read more
Job growth at the state level churned along with only one state, Rhode Island, posting a decline, dropping a minimal 0.20 percent in the 12-months ending March 2019. The table below shows all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. Respective ranks of job growth among the 50 states and the District of Columbia as …Read more
The business of selling houses is not a small-change enterprise. Total existing home sales in 2018 tallied 5.34 million single family houses, condominiums and townhouses that sold at an average $298,200 each, tallying to $1.592 trillion. Add in the 617,000 new home sales at an average $385,000 per dwelling ($237.5 billion) and total dollar volume …Read more
While I live by the mantra and Axiom (truth) that Jobs are Everything, what those jobs pay are also critical in driving the purchase of goods and services ultimately fueling the economy. Given the blurring of varying inflation over time, income and growth need to be adjusted and expressed in Real terms (inflation adjusted) rather …Read more
Existing home sales are down 6.6 percent in the first three months of this year, but that is not deterring a positive outlook for the remainder of the year according to the April 2019 forecasts from Fannie Mae, Freddie and the Mortgage Bankers Association. Each month these three update and revise their forecasts for new …Read more