Real estate’s Catch 22 and “Is the worst over?”
This week’s Top of the Tweets
By Camilla McLughlin
There has been a lot of speculation about the results of FED’s Quantative easing (QE2), especially regarding housing. Scott Sambucci @Altosresearch explains in a white paper: QE2 & the Housing Market: It’s not about the money http://bit.ly/ayCQMs
Foreclosures rose in 65 percent of the metros tracked by RealtyTrac in the third quarter. Seattle had the highest increase, 71 percent, followed by Houston at 26 percent. California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona accounted for 19 of the top 20 foreclosures rates in the country with the highest rate registering in Las Vegas.
Real estate’s Catch 22—foreclosures lead to falling prices, falling prices lead to more foreclosures. NPR recently explored the issue. http://n.pr/dffdZv Also weighing in on strategic defaults is @KCMcrew.
“Is the worst over?” was the question of the day for 20,000 Realtors in New Orleans for National Association of Realtors annual conference in New Orleans recently. Capturing the overall vibe was this Tweet from @BHGDesertProp: http://ow.ly/36tpl. The best assessment of the conference comes from @Swannepoel: http://bit.ly/9gDVIM. Regis Philbin, Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson all spoke but David Hasselhoff (pictured) drew big lines on the show floor.
Record prices for rare vintages. Three bottles of Chateau Lafite’s 1869 vintage each sold for a record price of $230,000 at a sale in Hong Kong. All three were bought by the same Asian telephone bidder, said Sotheby’s, which offered almost 2,000 bottles of Lafite shipped directly from the cellars of the chateau in Pauillac, near Bordeaux. http://bit.ly/9dbR1t
Keith Richards and Louis Vuitton are, like, totally BFF or something, blurbs @HannahElliott and @forbeslife http://tinyurl.com/28e4bjr. If you’re a Stones and/or Keith Richards fan, you might want to check out Richards’ new book, Life.
There’s an app for that. Want to know how dynamic your turns are, how many runs you’ve made or the latest conditions? There is an app for that and it’s not too soon to check them out, since resorts in Maine and Colorado opened in October. Mashable has the latest on apps for skiers and shredders. http://on.mash.to/ds7cp8
“Job killing you? Stressed Italian mob bosses seek help from therapists” from @AP was only one of this week’s interesting odd Tweets. http://apne.ws/axOKoR
