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SLC real estate links for the week of July 12-18
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After a few good weeks of articles I thought I’d mix it up today by bringing you a dual-article full of awesome real estate links and responses to comments. I hope to make this a recurring weekly (or perhaps bi-weekly or monthly) feature where I pass along some good real estate links on the web and respond to reader comments.
Without further ado, here are my real estate links for the week. Since this is our first week doing this I am going to focus on mostly the “must-see” real estate links for Utahans.
Wasatch Front MLS (www.utahrealestate.com) – this link is indispensible for home buyers, it shows you all of the MLS listed homes in Salt Lake County, and is very useful. This is especially useful because you can search specific zip codes and get basic pricing information. Right now there are a lot of short sales listed, so beware of those.
Zillow.com (www.zillow.com) – this is a great real estate resource that provides home values just like the MLS. Only, Zillow doesn’t just value the homes for sale, they value all of the homes. This is a great tool to get a feel for a given neighborhood or market. One of my favorite features of the site allows you to look at price fluctuations on a specific home over time.
Yahoo! Real Estate (http://realestate.yahoo.com) – this is another great resource that can be used in conjunction with the MLS and Zillow to help you get market information. In addition, Yahoo also has a lot of great columnists who write helpful real estate information from time to time.
Zip Realty (www.ziprealty.com) – this is yet another search site, although this one aggregates over 1 million real estate listings across the nation. If you are moving out of state and want to combine real listings with Zillow type market knowledge, this is a great place to do it.
Foreclosure Store.com (http://freesearch.foreclosurestore.com) – In this market, this web site provides a valuable resource. You can search foreclosures in all 50 states. Although there is a lot you need to look out for with foreclosures, this resource can be pretty helpful.
Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings (www.hadd.com) – this website was sent to me from reader’s comments (see below). I have found it to be an interesting resource for those who feel they have been taken advantage of by a home builder.
Homeowners for Better Building (www.hobb.org/) – this site represents another watchdog type site that readers have sent to me. The site includes major news releases relate to the home building industry.
And now, for this week’s link of the week. Every week I hope to submit a link with an interesting article or story about real estate to benefit readers. This link comes courtesy of Aaron, another local real estate professional here in Salt Lake. Aaron sent me this link to a New York Times article from 1999. Read it, it will scare you and make you wonder why we didn’t see this crisis coming long ago.
I hope you enjoy those links. And now, let’s get to the comments of the past few weeks. I feel that responding to comments will help promote a healthy dialog. Although I have strong opinions on real estate, I make a lot of mistakes and it’s nice to have readers’ help to keep me honest and keep the real estate content on Examiner.com valuable. So here are the comments followed by my answers. The first line is the article the comment was posted on, the second is the reader name, and the third line is the start of the comment.
The housing crisis explained part 3: home builders
Tiffany writes:
One thing not mentioned is the issue of defects and foreclosures due to them. Please see information on www.hadd.com and www.hobb.org. These are two national grassroots organizations that deal with these issues.
BLP response:
Tiffany, thanks for the heads up and for passing along these two great websites. Homeowners having any issues should definitely consult these sites. I have included them in the links section above.
The housing crisis explained part 3: home builders
CS writes:
I disagree that the builders weren’t ‘bending the rules’ as other parties to the bubble. Home builders have set up their own mortgage companies or had a preferred lender, and they were actively engaged in predatory, even illegal, lending. Take a look at hadd.com’s news page, or hobb.org’s. The news stories and govt documents abound. But this is flying under the radar of mainstream media and many “experts.” I don’t think most Americans realize how big a role builders played in creating an artificial bubble that wrecked the economy. They are not victims, they are the perpetrators. As just one example, Beazer Homes recently settled a criminal mortgage fraud case w/the govt. No one from Beazer is going to jail and I doubt its CEO’s will suffer any consequences. This has to stop – we can’t keep basing an economy on fraud and bubbles.
BLP response:
CS, you make some good points, and the web sites you have given are great resources. A vertically integrated home builder can create more issues, I agree. The only caveat I would give is that many home builders themselves are not actually involved in the lending process. To the extent they are, I would have included them in with the mortgage brokers in part 1 of my discussion on the housing crisis.
The housing crisis explained part 1: forgotten fundamentals
Loispoor writes:
This whole stimulus package is just part of the government’s long term plan to take away the power of the people. Are we going to do something about it or be lazy and think someone else is going to do it for us? It is time for a revolution. We need to overthrow the government and take our power back. Before there is nothing we can do about it, you should check www.obamamortgage2009.blogspot.com/2009/03/obamas-mortgage-modification-do-you.html#comments.
BLP response:
Loispoor, although I’m not a fan of the stimulus I certainly can’t endorse what you are writing here. A revolution? No, we have means in place to peacefully elect leaders and have our voice heard. America spoke last November, and if people are unhappy about it I suggest they contact their Congressman and vote differently next time around. Also, before taking your economic views to the point of revolution I suggest you go to your local University and enroll in an advanced Macroeconomics course to figure out for yourself what’s going on. I can suggest Mankiw as a great text author if you want to read up.
Should I keep renting or buy a home? Let’s dig through the numbers and find out…
Cin writes:
Thanks for this article. I’m SO tired of real estate shills telling everyone that it’s always a great time to buy, and then filling their heads w/ the same kind of nonsense that got this country’s economy into a mess.
BLP response:
Word. It’s amazing to learn about this in academia and see the tradeoffs so clearly. The problem with getting the message to everyone is that the marketing power of people in the residential real estate industry is very powerful. As one caveat to our discussion, I would like to state that there are likely several intangible benefits to home ownership. The government gives favored tax status because they believe that home ownership promotes stability in communities. I believe that there is some truth to this, so don’t make your entire rent vs. buy decision based on numbers. The stability factor and the opportunity to raise children in the same neighborhood may also factor in.
Should I keep renting or buy a home? Let’s dig through the numbers and find out…
Chris writes:
A fun exercise to add to this problem is purchasing a duplex or a home where you can rent the basement. Should you depreciate part of the home/duplex and how does that change the buy vs. rent conundrum???
BLP response:
Chris, this is an interesting situation and while the math is a bit more complicated the same theory holds. A property with a rentable basement, or a duplex property, should have that economic reality baked into the purchase price. The issue still comes down to the size of the down payment and the opportunity cost of capital on that money versus the cash flow benefits of owning. The time horizon is still a key here. A long time horizon in general benefits ownership, while shorter horizons tend to tip the scale towards renting (especially with 20% down payments).
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