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Madonna Buys $40 Million New York City Townhouse
Tweet Share on Facebook April 14, 2009 Comment (5)Housing crisis or not, Madonna is apparently jumping into the Big Apple's real estate market. The Material Girl has signed a roughly $40 million contract for a four-story townhouse on New York's Upper East Side, the New York Post reports.
That's some $5 million less than the original asking price…
But her new home in what brokers call the "Far East" does not appear to be all that much of a bargain.
No residence in that area "has ever sold for $20 million, let alone $30 million -- or ever will again," said one broker who asked not to be identified.
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Decent Rental Housing, Still Unaffordable for Low-Wage Workers
Tweet Share on Facebook April 14, 2009 Comment (15)Even as landlords reduce rents across the country, low-wage workers continue to have a difficult time finding affordable rental housing, according to a new report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
Check out the following map, which shows the "number of jobs (40 hours per week, 52 weeks a year) per household at prevailing minimum wage needed to afford the Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at 30% of income."
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Home Prices Continue Declining in February
Tweet Share on Facebook April 14, 2009 Comment -
The Compassionate Eviction
Tweet Share on Facebook April 13, 2009 Comment (3)After halting evictions several months back, a county in Illinois is taking a softer approach to tossing families out of their homes:
What has emerged is a kinder, gentler eviction process. Now banks must prove that tenants were notified 120 days in advance. Deputies visit the properties three times before the eviction, and a social worker helps connect the residents with public services — sometimes even putting them in touch with new landlords.
It's one of the only known efforts by a sheriff's department to make evictions more compassionate.
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Apartment Rents Falling Fast
Tweet Share on Facebook April 13, 2009 CommentAlthough it's easy to overlook, landlords in growing numbers have been forced to lower rents and toss in perks to keep their apartment buildings filled, BusinessWeek reports:
Half of apartment buildings reduced rents in the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year—the highest percentage since [real estate data firm] Reis began tracking apartment data in 1980. (By comparison, only 17% of buildings reduced rents in 2007.) And average asking rents fell 0.6%, to $1,046, in the U.S. in the first quarter, compared with the previous quarter, the largest drop since Reis began collecting quarterly data in 1999. And average effective rents, which include free months and other landlord incentives, fell 1.1%, to $984.
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New Jersey Real Estate Licenses Plummet in 2008
Tweet Share on Facebook April 13, 2009 Comment (2)With home sales down sharply, interest in entering the real estate profession in New Jersey has fallen precipitously.
From New Jersey On-Line, via (The Real Estate Bloggers):
Real estate classes are half-empty and agents are looking for other work until the cycle begins again.
The number of people getting real estate licenses in 2008 fell by a third, according to state statistics, following a 17 percent decline in each of the two previous years…
"People are saying, 'Wow, I've got to get a real job,'" said Richard Leonard, who owns Arcadia Realtors in Roseland.
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Record 1 in 9 Homes Vacant, Census Bureau Says
Tweet Share on Facebook April 10, 2009 Comment (2)The Census Bureau reports that one in every nine American homes is currently vacant, according to USA Today: (via The Real Estate Bloggers)
More than 14 million housing units are vacant. That number does not include an estimated 4.8 million seasonal or vacation homes, most of which are occupied part of the year. The combined vacancy rate of almost 15% is higher than during previous recessions: 11% in 1991 and 9.4% in 1984.
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Mortgage Rates Rise Modestly to 4.87%
Tweet Share on Facebook April 10, 2009 Comment (1)Mortgage rates increased modestly this week but remain just above their all-time lows, according to Freddie Mac:
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Nouriel Roubini Calls Jim Cramer a Shameless Buffoon
Tweet Share on Facebook April 9, 2009 Comment (3)The day before he celebrated his 1,000th episode of "Mad Money," Jim Cramer got served by the dean of the global financial crisis, NYU Professor Nouriel Roubini. (via The Big Picture)
[Check out Nouriel Roubini: The $700 Billion Bailout Isn’t Enough]
"Cramer is a buffoon," said Roubini, a New York University economics professor often called Dr. Doom. "He was one of those who called six times in a row for this bear market rally to be a bull market rally and he got it wrong. And after all this mess and Jon Stewart he should just shut up because he has no shame."
Fresh from his demoralizing exchange with "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart, it seems that Cramer has found himself in a fresh spat, this time with the economist who accurately predicted the subprime meltdown and the collapse of the credit markets several years back:
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TARP Cost Estimate Increases by $167 Billion
Tweet Share on Facebook April 8, 2009 Comment (3)I saw this in a recent David Wessel article:
In January, the [Congressional Budget Office] pegged the ultimate cost to taxpayers of the $700 billion TARP at $189 billion. When the agency issued revised numbers in late March, it revised that to $356 billion, a change that drew little attention. The larger estimate reflects, among other things, the Treasury's move to use the TARP to help avoid foreclosures, as well as the changing details of its aid to American International Group Inc., and the deterioration of financial conditions and of banks in which the Treasury has invested TARP money.
In light of all the bailout furor, it's remarkable how little play this revision has received.
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