Twenty Five Timeless Business and Management Tips: Today's Real Estate and Economic Commentary is not that at all. It is actually some thoughts about the business of business. More specifically, it is what I call Twenty Five Timeless Business and Managements Tips. This is just a short look at some of the things I have learned thus far in a business career that has lasted over 40 years. These tips have benefitted me over the years. Perhaps you'll find some of them useful too.
Using the Appraisal to Evaluate Repayment Risk: A reliable appraisal report is an important piece of information a lender should use when evaluating a prospective borrower’s ability and willingness to repay a loan. In today’s troubled real estate markets, where distress situations sometimes outnumber new originations, the appraisal is also an essential tool in loss mitigation, workout, or disposition…
Some Things Never Change: While sorting through some old books and articles recently, I came across an article entitled “The Residential Appraiser / Underwriter Relationship: A Deregulation Casualty.” It was published in the professional journal of the former Society of Real Estate Appraisers (now part of the Appraisal Institute) in early 1985. It also won the SREA Foundation award that year for Best Article by a Practitioner published in that journal, Perhaps the biggest blast from the past was that I wrote it…
Recession Probability Revisited: Risks Still Rising: A few weeks ago we wrote that the nation’s economy had slowed to stall speed and was inching perilously close to another recession. At the time we forecast the probability of another recession at 35% to 40%; double our forecast six months earlier. Data released in late August and throughout September suggest that the probability has now risen to over 50%…
Florida Housing Overview: Recession risks are still rising. Our updated forecast is that the probability is now over 50% that we will be in another recession within six months. That is up from 35% to 40% last month and over double the probability six months ago…
Looking Forward - The Probability of Recession: Questions many business people and professionals have about the probability of recession are first, whether it will happen and second, how do we estimate the probability before it occurs. Is the forecast…
Housing Market Still In Disarray. Outlook Still Bleak: The housing market remains in disarray and the short term outlook is still not good.
What Happened? The Sad State of-Housing: Housing remains seriously impaired. Indeed, it has been for five years now. Today, it is the epicenter of U.S. economic woes and remains a serious drag on recovery of the broader economy. Moreover, the collateral damage from the housing collapse...
The Continuing Myth of Appraiser Independence: Appraisers have an ethical responsibility to perform in an independent fashion and not advocate interests other than their own and...
Economic Fast Facts: There was a little possible good news for a change in that the National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index was up. I say “possible good news” only because this was the first significant increase in an index that tends to be volatile at this stage of recovery.
Economic Fast Facts: The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that loan originations were down 35% in the first quarter of 2011 to $325 billion. Analysts are expecting total residential loan volume to…
Economic Fast Facts: Here are a couple of “Fast Facts” from last week’s economic reports. Perhaps the most troubling is the Case-Shiller housing numbers. The report confirms that the nation is in the throes of a double dip housing recession. Median home values have declined 33% nationwide since the peak in 2007. The decline has now exceeded the decline during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Following the Great Depression, it took home prices 19 years to recover.
Where Has All the Appraisal Business Gone?: We get this question a lot from our appraisers. Unfortunately, it’s a sign of the times.
Why Housing Won’t Improve Anytime Soon: Despite record low interest rates, renewed affordability and other seemingly positive factors, the housing market still faces…
Stimulus Without Demand Equals Bailout: Albert Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing things over and over again and expecting different results. Given that definition, one must wonder about the sanity of the federal government as…
Social Impacts of Long Term Unemployment: The Great Recession technically ended in mid-2009. Recovery since then has been slow, uneven and oftentimes painful. The recession and slow recovery have ravaged the nation’s labor force. Nearly 14 million Americans…
The Economics of Vacant Land and its Valuation: Land is a commodity whose value lies in its contribution to a finished product. In real estate, that finished product may be a shopping center, office building, a subdivision, a single family residence or any other type of development. For a component part of any product to have value, there must be…