If there’s one thing the (self-proclaimed) Data Geeks of Altos enjoy, it’s a challenge – particularly one issued from a client. Today’s challenge – “What rent can I expect from my residential investment real estate?” OK, we got that handled. The answer was simple but not easy – the Rental Valuation Model. Click it...
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Dorkbot is a semi-monthly meeting of “people doing strange things with electricity.” They have been chugging along in several cities for a decade-or-so. Back in 2005 I presented at a Dorkbot in London, so I have an enduring soft spot for these quirky gatherings. At this month’s Dorkbot in San Francisco, a meteorologist named...
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The August 2011 Altos Research Mid-Cities Report is now available. (Our Mid-Cities Report provides a glimpse into real estate market trends for mid-sized US markets not commonly reported in the media. Click here for more background on this composite.) As we analyze mid-sized cities like Pittsburgh and Memphis, differences continue to emerge as compared to the...
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Much to the consternation of those around us, we first saw Detroit’s price strength back in April (See our National Housing Report). From yesterday’s HousingWire article – “Home sales rise 9.6% in greater Detroit area”: The Detroit area experienced a 9.6% surge in home sales in July… Home prices in the four-county metropolitan area climbed 8.8%…...
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We tackled several topics in my five-minute segment CNBC’s Street Signs on Wednesday – “Housing: A Silver Lining” – so here’s some deeper analysis of the on-air arguments and assumptions. Valuation methodology is the acute problem for most of today’s housing market problems – refinancing, demand stimulus, foreclosures. The valuation and appraisal process is...
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[08/15/11: Author "told-you-so" update - We saw rising home prices in Phoenix from foreclosure activity much earlier this year.) From HousingWire: “Rise in REO value cuts Freddie Mac holding expenses by 90%” “The decrease in REO operations expense was primarily driven by an improvement in both REO holding period write-downs and disposition losses as REO...
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Bell curves and real estate price changes. Histograms are a visual way to summarize a huge set of numbers. The horizontal axis covers the range of numbers, while the height of the vertical columns shows how many occurrences of that number turn up in the data. Even when the histogram looks mostly like the...
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Where do stock market winners buy houses? Prices in certain local real estate markets are bolstered by a rally in the stock market. The recent murmurings of another IPO bubble suggest that newly minted paper millionaires will soon be shopping for homes in Los Altos Hills and Cupertino. We can put numbers behind this...
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Ever wondered why your flat’s Zestimate bounces around so much? In high school economics class you might have learned about fungible goods. This strange word refers to things that could be swapped without the owners especially caring. A dollar is almost perfectly fungible, and so is an ounce of pure silver. Paintings and emotional...
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Questions galore about “The Catfish Recovery” in last week’s webcast. The good people at Business Insider covered the event and posted our favorite image: Here are the main takeaways and responses to a few comments. If you’re expecting a smooth, consistent 3-5% annual growth rate in housing, you’ll be waiting a while. It just...
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