Realty Check with Diana Olick
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Fannie Mae common shares have soared, but there may not be a happy ending for investors.
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Bada-Bust
Posted By: Diana Olick
When Tony Soprano says you're in trouble, you're really in trouble. But his latest target can't exactly run for the witness protection program. Impossible, because this unlucky loser is everywhere. That's right, in your house as we speak; in fact, it is your house.
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Realty Responses: Compared to a year ago, how much more or less house can you get for a million dollars?
Viewers and readers respond to the question: Compared to a year ago, how much more or less house can you get for a million dollars?
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A Million Dollars Ain't What it Used to Be, Even Now
Posted By: Diana Olick
I love million-dollar home day on CNBC, not just because I get to go traipsing around the country, snooping through semi-rich people's homes, but also because I get to see that I'm not the only one getting nothing for something. Okay, that's not fair. Yes, there are hinterlands out there where a million dollars will buy you something truly large and truly beautiful; the question is: do you truly want to live there?
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New vs. Existing: What's up with that???
Posted By: Diana Olick
So I just saw on TV that Gwyneth Paltrow doubled her money on the sale of her Tribeca apartment in Manhattan. $14 mill!! She may not like the U.S. (she moved to London because, she has said, she prefers the European way of life), but she can't trash the NYC real estate market now, can she? Like I've been saying and saying and saying, all real estate is local.
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The Numbers Don't Lie
Posted By: Diana Olick
Existing home sales numbers fell off a cliff in March, down 8.4% month to month and down 11.3% from March of 2006 (the latter the more important measure). Realtors are blaming it on the weather, yet again, and they do have some fodder for their argument. This February was the coldest on record since 1994, and February sales represent the March closings that we see in these numbers.
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Shades of Green
Posted By: Diana Olick
I know I've blogged about green building before, but humor me if you will, because I'm not going to let Earth Day go by without reminding everyone of the enormous and growing potentials of going green at home. Now I'm no Al Gore, but one trip to the International Home Builders Show in Orlando a few months ago had me ready to rip out my century-old insulation and put a timer on every light switch.
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Defying Gravity
Posted By: Diana Olick
To say that the housing starts number from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce today defied the Street's expectations is simplification to the Nth degree. The starts number defies logic, and it defies common fiscal sense. To be fair, many of the experts I spoke with today wrote it off as a "fluke," and the Commerce Dept.'s number has a notoriously high margin of error, especially in the permits breakdown.
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Condos: It’s not a Subprime Scenario
Posted By: Diana Olick
I was reading an article from last weekend’s Washington Post (sue me, it’s been a busy week) about Condos feeling the “Mortgage Crunch.” The article explains how condos are bearing the brunt of defaults and foreclosures because condo fees are going unpaid and condo associations are being forced to dip into reserves to make repairs like fixing the roof or replacing the water heater.
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The Jury is In, The Bailout is Out
Posted By: Diana Olick
You bloggers don’t mince words do you? First off, I want to thank all of you for writing in—a one day record for the Realty Check blog, 165 responses in one day and 9 more floating through the ether overnight (seriously, Jay J., what are you doing blogging at 1:21am???). I can’t possibly post all your responses, so I thought I would at least list some of the subject lines ...
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About Realty Check
Realty Check takes you from the housing boom to bust and beyond. Led by Diana Olick, we were here when the house came crashing down and we have the singular expertise to explain how it will be rebuilt. The goal of this blog is to bring the market, the rescue plans, the politics and the pontification home to you, with clear concise explanations of the wildly complicated issues in all facets of real estate today and tomorrow. Realty Check is read by leaders in the real estate industry: Investors, Realtors, Big builder CEOs, Mortgage Bankers, Wall Street Analysts and Administration Officials to name a few.
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Olick serves as CNBC's real estate correspondent as well as the author of the "Realty Check" blog on CNBC.com.
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Real Estate Explained
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The housing market is one of the pillars of the U.S. economy and there may be no better indication of how the market is doing than housing starts.
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You may have heard this term in the aftermath of the real estate bubble. So what is an underwater mortgage?
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Sometimes financial terms sound exactly like what they are. CNBC explains jumbo mortgages.
Real Estate
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Thanks to the brightening economy, Americans are relocating again. Here are some tips to prepare for moving day.
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Prices are stabilizing in SC, but in the Hamptons, home prices are roaring back and rentals are fully booked.
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There is new concern that tenants and investors alike will move out of the multi-family space.