As IYR mashed up against its trendline a couple of weeks ago, I pointed it out as a bearish opportunity. It took a little while, but it has finally wised up.
Real Estate Gets It
Slope of Hope Blog Posts
Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.
The American Ream
Normally it only takes a small percentage change in something to make it newsworthy. If the labor force participation index, for instance, went from 62% to 61%, that would merit discussion. The chart below, however, is jaw-dropping: a 50% level of home affordability down to 16% should be front page news across the country (it isn’t). I suppose this is largely caused by the increase in interest rates coupled with the merciless acquisition of residences by private equity firms. Let’s just say I’m glad I bought my “life home” in 1991.
Squatty Potty
Nice to see my home state got this one right.
Easter Eggs (16 of 21): Mark to Market
Preface to all 21 parts: This is a special holiday weekend, because not only does it contain Good Friday and Easter, but it also begins the Slope of Hope's 20th year in continuous operation! Through the weekend, I will be sharing some of my favorite posts from the past, plucked from among the literally 30,000 posts I've created over the years. Here is one of them:
I penned a recent post describing how the good people at Zillow had slashed the ostensible value of my lovely private residence from $8.4 million to $4.8 million (maybe they just like flipping digits?) Given the relatively smooth sailing of Zillow data, this was curious to me, until I stumbled upon an event that might have jostled their statistics: the sale of the home of my next door neighbor:
The Death of 6% Commissions
There was earth-shaking news in the world of residential real estate on Friday, as the National Association of Realtors agreed to end its long-standing 6% commission for more of a free market model. It’ll probably mean the entire real estate industry is going to be far less lucrative, and Zillow, for instance, lost about 14% of its value instantly, on huge volume.
