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.
Shallow Alto
Those of you who use the real estate site zillow.com may know that you can “save” your real estate properties and track them over time. Our family has a number of apartment buildings, but those valuations are hard to pin down and thus not on Zillow. Our homes, however, are, and it’s interesting to see the changes that have taken place recently.
The most dramatic one is in my fair city of Palo Alto. Ostensibly, home sweet home has wildly swung between $6 million and $9 million, even over recent history. I personally find it hard to believe that the swings are anything this crazy, and maybe that’s why Zillow got totally torched with their own real estate portfolio, since the data is kind of spasmodic. Since we’ve lived here for over thirty years, and bought the place dirt cheap, I don’t really care, but those who bought at the top – – God help ’em.
(more…)CEOs for the Win!
Check out what salary you need to buy a house these days. The highest one is San Jose, and take it from someone who lives in Palo Alto, you DON’T want to live in San Jose.
Chinese Demolition
ETF Focus: Housing
Preface to all ETF posts: Just a quick overview this weekend of some general categories. You know the drill: click on any chart for a larger, easier-to-see version. I’ve read some folks complaining about how real estate funds are being annoyingly strong. That is true. I’m in IYR puts myself, and I feel this acutely. I do want to point out, however, that IYR in particularly has an odd habit of lagging the market sometimes. I remember so well earlier this year that the market really started falling, and IYR just ignored it completely – – until about a week later, when the wheels absolutely fell off and it “caught down” with everything else.
