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Tag: Real Estate
Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with real estate expert and broker/owner Pauline Donnelly about the disruption and trends created by the Covid-19 pandemic and steps buyers and renters can take to become more informed, prudent, and competitive in the frenzied market of Greater Boston and Martha’s Vineyard.
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This week on JobMakers, host Denzil Mohammed talks with Evan Silverio, child of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, President and CEO of Silverio Insurance Agency, and founder of Diverse Real Estate, both in Lawrence, Massachusetts. With the example set by his mother, who founded the agency, Evan has achieved success, despite getting into real estate during a housing bust. Evan has since purchased nearly 100 properties across the commonwealth. He describes the examples set by his immigrant mother and grandfather, and how that shaped not just his approach to business but also giving back to the community that nurtured him, as you’ll learn in this week’s JobMakers.
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Re: The Corporate Ownership of Homes
Gary Berman just oozes the sense of entitlement and arrogance that typifies globalist oligarchs. His company, Tricon Residential, owns 30,000 single-family homes in the United States and is buying more at the rate of 800 per month. His $5.5 billion corporation (and companies like his) has the resources to snap up the kind of home young families would like to buy. He says it’s OK because “Millennials don’t really want to own homes.”
I tend to disagree, as the father to three “Millennials” and the uncle to several more. Millennials would very much like to own their own homes, despite being propagandized their entire lives to disdain property, to have a preference for “experiences over possessions,” to own nothing and be happy. There are very good reasons for wanting to own property; and very good reason that the oligarchs don’t want you to.
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Liquidating the ‘Hood
Stranded assets are the beached whales of capitalism. Capital invested in what looked like a good long term bet, that has now turned into an illiquid headache due to a change of circumstances. This term is often used in the context of regulation and environmentalism, but assets can become stranded in other ways:
If you keep even half an eye on the investing scene, you know that commercial real estate in general, and retail in particular, has been in trouble for some time. The advance of online shopping and networked business in general has been relentless and deadly. ‘Category killer’ store fronts and department stores alike have fallen to bankruptcy and reorganization, shopping malls have lost their anchor tenants, gone under and been rebuilt into everything from housing to entertainment centers. And that was before COVID, and before looters and arsonists showed up at the door.
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Why Can’t the US Use Its Assets Like the UK?
If you’re like many Ricochet folks, you get “The Daily Shot” in your inbox every day. (No, I’m not going to scold you if you don’t.)
Wednesday morning’s edition caught my eye because of some talk about Queen Elizabeth II getting a pay raise. As Americans, we’ve occasionally made comparisons between the Royal Family’s expenditures versus our own First Family. This was a relative sport for some, until earlier this year.
In both the US and the UK, the citizens bear the bill for their respective “families,” but across the pond, that isn’t as direct as it is here. The esteemed writer and editor of the daily newsletter did a fine job of explaining that:
Trump: Putin’s Manchurian Candidate?
[Member Post]
What Your Appraiser Wants You To Know
Here I take up Claire’s challenge for folks with specialized knowledge and tell you about the job that actually pays my bills.
So you’ve decided to buy or refinance your house. Congratulations! Now, here are the things that your appraiser — and by extension, your appraisal management company (where I work) — want you to know.
[Member Post]
Loosening Home Lending Standards — What Could Go Wrong?
After a near-depression and worst-ever financial crisis that cost the US economy as much as $14 trillion, one might think Washington would be careful to avoid repeating the same policy mistakes. One might think, for instance, Washington would think twice and then thrice before loosening mortgage lending standards to boost home ownership, particularly among low-income borrowers. Because, you know, loosened mortgage standards seem to have played some role in helping set the stage for the catastrophic mortgage meltdown.
Recall three conclusions from the National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States:
1.) From the majority report: “We conclude collapsing mortgage-lending standards and the mortgage securitization pipeline lit and spread the flame of contagion and crisis.”
New Yorkers Fail Economics — Rob Long
It sometimes seems like the New York Times does a piece about rising real estate prices hourly. The components are almost always the same: rising prices, high demand, tight availability. (The NYT tends to see these things as distinct from each other, rather than interconnected.)
Usually, they’ll pick a “typical” New Yorker — read: a friend of a friend of the reporter — as a peg on which to hook the piece.