Alison Rogers, a real estate practitioner who writes the "Ask the Agent" column for MoneyWatch,says “good riddance” to 2009.
“Like many REALTORS®, my income took a dive (a shocking 40 percent off last year)," Rogers writes in her blog. She lists these top 10 stories as the most compelling of the year:
1. Foreclosures reach 3 million.
2. Mortgage modifications start slowly – thousands of applications, but only 32,000 granted.
3. Homeownership is down from more than 69 percent to 67.6 percent and many who should have been renters all along are back in the rental category.
4. It’s the jobs, stupid. The outlook for real estate is still grim as long as unemployment is high.
5. Mortgage lending is coming back, but borrowing $2 million for an upscale house is still tough.
6. First-time home buyers jumped into the pool by the millions, thanks to the first-time home buyer tax credit.
7. The Federal government auctioned off Ponzi-schemer Bernie Madoff’s properties, but most of his “investors’ were still in the tank.
8. No story better illustrated the banks’ casual attitude than the one about the banker who partied in a Madoff victim’s foreclosed house.
9. Interest rates stayed low, inviting the old dogs to tell stories about how bad it was in 1989.
10. Celebrities are just like us – they’re losing their homes too.
“Like many REALTORS®, my income took a dive (a shocking 40 percent off last year)," Rogers writes in her blog. She lists these top 10 stories as the most compelling of the year:
1. Foreclosures reach 3 million.
2. Mortgage modifications start slowly – thousands of applications, but only 32,000 granted.
3. Homeownership is down from more than 69 percent to 67.6 percent and many who should have been renters all along are back in the rental category.
4. It’s the jobs, stupid. The outlook for real estate is still grim as long as unemployment is high.
5. Mortgage lending is coming back, but borrowing $2 million for an upscale house is still tough.
6. First-time home buyers jumped into the pool by the millions, thanks to the first-time home buyer tax credit.
7. The Federal government auctioned off Ponzi-schemer Bernie Madoff’s properties, but most of his “investors’ were still in the tank.
8. No story better illustrated the banks’ casual attitude than the one about the banker who partied in a Madoff victim’s foreclosed house.
9. Interest rates stayed low, inviting the old dogs to tell stories about how bad it was in 1989.
10. Celebrities are just like us – they’re losing their homes too.
Comments