So the PMI Mortgage Insurance Company, released its Summer 2008 U.S. Market Risk Index yesterday. The list looks at the top 50 U.S. housing markets, and assesses the likelihood that home prices will be lower in that market it two years than they are today. At the top of the list, Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario California, with a 95.5% chance of lower prices in the next two years. In other words, they're nearly 100% sure prices are going to drop. ... Read More

Forbes magazine just released their list of the 10 best cities for home sellers in 2008. And guess which market came in at #7? Our very own Denver! To assess each market, Forbes looked at unsold vacancy rates, construction starts (to see if a lot of new construction would be cropping up and making vacancy rates worse), job creation (to see if buyers would have jobs, so they could buy houses) and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae's new conforming loan limits ... Read More

I just read a Christian Science Monitor article that said that the slump in the real estate market is forcing many realtors out of the business. The evidence was mostly anecdotal , with very few actual statistics to back up this theory of mass exodus. The only actual figure I saw was that Oregon Association of Realtors reports an 11% drop in their membership over the past year. Aside from that, it was a lot of talk about "experts" who ... Read More

Okay, so now I'm up to four multiple bid situations in two weeks. Still don't know whether my buyer got the property. I was contemplating this situation, and have concluded that it indicates that buyers are indeed out there. They've just been waiting for prices to adjust -- which in some segments they have. Two of my multiple bids have been foreclosures. Another was home on a large lot in a popular "scraping" neighborhood. And the ... Read More