Real Estate Directory

Sam Zell on the Housing upturn

Billionaire investor Sam Zell, owner of the Chicago Cubs, Chicago Tribune, LA Times and more says we are not in a recession and are not going into a recession. He says that the US economy will avoid recession as the housing market begins to recover this spring.

"Obviously what we have going on is an attempt to create a self-fulfilling prophecy," said Zell, chairman of Equity Investments Group.."We have two Democratic candidates who are vying with each other to describe the economic situation worse. The reality is that if you live on Wall Street and you're in the credit markets the world couldn't be worse. If you're a farmer and you're getting $25 for your wheat, you're having a great time. If you're a CEO and you've got a balance sheet that's bullet-proof, you're in a great position. This whole thing is way out of control, way out of hand."

Who Watches Video?

18-34 aged men accounted for 27% of viewed video streams in December on the YouTube.com, MySpace.com, Veoh.com and Break.com.

Compare this to 11% of video streams viewed by women in the same age group. Women were more likely than men to view video content on network TV web sites, where they accounted for 22% of video viewings, compared to 12% for men, Nielsen says. From the report by VideoCensus measurement service of Nielsen Online.

Men and Valentines Day and the Net

Men are more likely than women to use the Internet to aid them in their Valentine’s Day gift purchase, particularly to get gift ideas or find a store, this according to DoubleClick Performics.

Of 656 men and women surveyed 47% said they planned to use the Internet in shopping for a Valentine’s gift. However, 57% of men said they planned on using the Internet compared with only 39% of women.

“Retailers should understand the potential link between online research and in-store purchases, even for a simple item like Valentine’s Day candy,” says Stuart Larkins, vice president of search for DoubleClick. “No matter where consumers intend to make their purchases, online is proving to be a springboard and a key influencer for much of their purchase activities.”

Convenience was cited by 48% of consumers as the key reason for using the Internet for Valentine’s Day gift shopping

Convenience was followed by:

• better selection 18%
• less expensive 9%
• better quality 4%
• 19% said they weren’t sure why they were using the Internet

The key questions missing from the report is how many of the 48% who cite convenience actually admitted that they shopped online to their girlfriend or wife. And how many of those were accused of laziness instead of being convenient!   

Marketing Hispanic

• One out of ten U.S. internet users are Latino.
• 18.8 million of the 44.3 million Hispanics living in the United States today are online.
• By 2050, Latinos will be 29% of the entire American population.
• 32% of Latino adults who speak only Spanish go online

Going Green

Demand for homes with energy-efficient appliances, windows, heating systems isincreasing. Realtors who can ID identify green homes will be first in line to prosper.

"We've left our name with a few Realtors in the area, but we haven't gotten any callbacks. They looked at us funny as we described what we were looking for," Enos said in an e-mail. "We have been looking for a green home for a while and have really given up. We're now down to looking for 'green land' — where a house can be built with the proper solar PV angles" and other eco-friendly features.

Hoime Improvements Rise

ServiceMagic.com reports that over 2/3  of Americans said they would complete a home improvement project in 2008. They found that 69 percent of those surveyed would improve their home this year, while 31 percent said they would likely go through with a home improvement after some careful consideration and possibly a delay.

Detroit Making a Comeback

Detroit Rock City is living up to its name sake while bouncing back with sales up by 15%, doubling last years closings from last year. Sales of residential and condominium units in Detroit nearly doubled in January, compared with the same month a year ago, and the region overall got a nearly 15 percent bump, according to real estate data firm Realcomp. Thats 45.5 % increase in the month, with 736 closings. 

Dallas Housing Market

Dallas is being called the most stable market in the U.S. because of jobs. This according to a PMI Group study reported that the risk of U.S. housing price declines remained low in many areas of the South. Among the 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas,many Texas cities were the lowest and most stable in risk outlook during 2007.

 

Project Lifeline

Saving Houses

Six mortgage servicing companies in partnership with U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the official launch of Project Lifeline today.

Project Lifeline extends the reach of HOPE NOW Alliance's home retention initiative, and a project designed to extend the nation's loss mitigation focus. By reaching to home loan borrowers 90-days or more delinquent on their mortgage payments, and offering at least a 30-day reprieve.

Secretary Paulson and HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson made the announcement alongside representatives from six participating mortgage servicing companies—all of which represent 50-percent of the mortgage market. The participating servicers include Bank of America (BofA), Citigroup, Countrywide Financial Corp., JP Morgan Chase, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo.

Videos

Comscore recently released December 2007 data from their Video Metrix service.  U.S. Internet users watched more than 10 billion videos online during the month, representing the single heaviest month for online video consumption since comScore initiated its tracking service. 

• 77.6 million viewers viewed 3.2 billion videos on YouTube.com (41.6 videos per viewer).
• 40.5 million viewers viewed 334 million videos on MySpace.com (8.2 videos per viewer).
• online viewers viewed an average of 3.4 hours (203 minutes) of online video during the month, representing a 34-percent gain since the beginning of 2007.
• The average online video duration was 2.8 minutes.
• The average online video viewer consumed 72 videos.