Nantucket Island Massachusetts Directory of Real Estate Resources

I just got back from the Inman Real Estate Conference in NYC and learned a ton.

All in all, people think there will still be pain in most real estate markets. However, there was also a majority consensus that areas like Nantucket, the Hamptons and Manhattan are well insulated markets that are very resilient and will for the most part be unscathed. This is particularly true of Nantucket (and Manhattan less so) because there is a finite supply of land.

To understand why the Nantucket market is so resilient to downward pressures in the national real market think of this:

There is a finite supply of land that is constantly decreasing (mainly because of the …

Real estate is most often purchased using leverage. Leverage refers to the purchase of an investment with borrowed money (the mortgage). The effect of leverage is that both gains and losses on the investment are magnified dramatically.

Consider the following two examples:

The Smith family has $25,000 to invest. They choose to invest in the stock market by purchasing mutual funds. If the stock market rises by 10%, the value of the Smith family�€™s investment will increase by $2,500. If the stock market falls by 10%, the Smith family will lose $2500 on their investment, leaving them with an investment worth $22,500.

The Jones family also has $25,000 to invest. They choose to use the money as a down payment …

June 6 (Bloomberg) — While it’s folly to predict exactly when local housing bubbles will burst, there are ways to ensure that your real-estate holdings don’t explode.

With U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan finally weighing in with the observation on May 20 that he’s seeing “an unsustainable underlying pattern'’ and “froth'’ in U.S. housing markets, it makes sense to monitor local economic signs to guide when — and when not to — buy.

There may be a gradual slowdown as mortgage rates ascend in line with the Fed’s policy to curb inflation by raising short- term borrowing costs, provided it stays that course. So paying attention to types of financing used in the most active markets is critical.

It’s …

Measly returns on Wall Street over the last few years make the hottest housing market on record seem like a sure thing. It’s not.
By Forbes.com

Where’s a better place to put your money: the stock market or real estate? These days the accepted wisdom (at least at cocktail parties) says to pick real estate. But is the accepted wisdom right?

It is — in the short term. U.S. real estate sale prices increased more than 56% from the beginning of 1999 to the end of 2004, as tracked by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The S&P 500 index ($INX) dipped nearly 6% during that same period.

But if you …

How Cheap Dollars And Cheap Flights Are Bringing Average Joes To A Market Near You.

By Rana Foroohar
Newsweek International

May 2 issue - Property, like politics, used to be local. After all, what demands more on-the-ground knowledge than buying a home?

But over the last few years real estate has gone global. Already, there’s a good chance you or someone you know owns a second home abroad. You may even unwittingly own a stake in a Guangzhou office block, via your pension fund. “Over the last five years, both direct and indirect cross-border real-estate investment has been on the rise,” says Tony Horrell, CEO of European capital markets for property-investment firm Jones Lang LaSalle. “By some estimates, half of the world’s wealth …

�€˜Appraisal inflation�€™ a worry for housing experts
By Jane Wells

It is often referred to as �€œappraisal inflation�€� and it could be the dirty little secret of the housing industry.

advertisement

The practice �€” when real estate appraisers bend the numbers to satisfy clients and stay in business �€” is a growing problem, according to real estate experts.

Appraisers say there is pressure on them to inflate home values, and there is concern that if people pay too much for their homes it could lead to more foreclosures if housing prices tumble. And banks could be left holding the bag.

Data show the problem is widespread.

A recent survey of 500 appraisers by the October Research Group, a provider of news and information to the …

New York Times
Published: March 25, 2005
By MOTOKO RICH and DAVID LEONHARDT

Real estate-crazed Americans have started behaving in ways that eerily recall the stock market obsession of the late 1990’s.

In Naples, Fla., some houses have been bought twice in a single day, an early-21st-century version of day trading. Buying stocks on margin has morphed into buying homes with no money down. The over-the-top parties of Internet start-ups have been replaced by flashy gatherings where developers pitch condos to eager buyers.

Read Article

By Robert J. Bruss
Inman News
Consumer Real Estate News

At the 2005 International Builders Show in Orlando, Fla., economists David Seiders of the National Association of Home Builders, David Berson of Fannie Mae, and Frank Nothaft of Freddie Mac agreed that mortgage loans to rental-home investors are becoming a significant factor in home sales. As much as 9 percent of home sales, they reported, involve investors buying houses and condos for rentals rather than owner-occupancy.

Go to Yahoo! Real Estate news and read entire article