Trends, predictions, distilled information about the current real estate market in Manhattan, nationally and internationally has been generating a lot of ink over the past few months. What to do if we're a buyer? or a seller? Just what do people mean when they say there's a bubble, it's a soft landing, a hard landing? Here is the first in a series of links to what I consider to be some of the most acute observations, informative and intriguing analysis of what the inhabitants of this planet are coming to realize, as America's own Mark Twain once so prudently stated;
Buy land, they aren't making any more.
Appraisals:
One thing is certain, people in this market are working harder or they get left behind. That includes developers, builders, architects, marketing consultants, real estate brokers, mortgage brokers, and appraisers. Manhattan's guru of market information and an appraiser himself, Jonathan Miller has a few insights into the changing market regarding the context for criteria that appraisers use. In Miller's soapbox blog
Sounding Bored he refers to an article written by Los Angeles Times reporter Kenneth R. Harney, entitled "It's harder these days to pin down a truly comparable value," check it out!
Global Markets:
"Checking the thermostat" a September 7th column on the global housing market in the
Economist talks about property prices cooling in America but heating up elsewhere. They cite the U.S. rate of growth has stalled to 1999 numbers and that the "European housing markets-notably Denmark, Belgium, Ireland, France and Sweden-now dominate." Pointed out also is that Britain and Australia had dropped to zero growth this time last year but have recovered with more than a 6% gain this year. Will the U.S. follow that example? They go on to talk about how they see "the ratio of house prices to rents as a sort of price/earnings ratio for property" prices. Jump
here for the full story.
