These Housing Notes Are 5 Years Old!

March 6, 2020

Wayyyy back on March 6, 2015, I sat down and wrote an intro to what resulted in over 260 Housing Notes. My readership is modest but very focused on housing, ranging between 6,000 and 7,000 who all opted in, plus all the readers they share my Housing Notes with. Subscribers include real estate brokers, attorneys, Wall Streeters, federal regulators and agencies, local, state and federal government officials, home buyers and sellers, trade groups and others.

To be honest, I love that feeling I get on Thursday night, anticipating sitting down on Friday morning to capture as much of the past week’s housing market experiences in written or visual form. I’ve come to see it as a weekly cleanse, shining the light on things that I’ve thought about, read, created, spoken to, since the prior Housing Note.

There have been a handful of times (like today) where my efforts have been restrained by the lack of time. My reality means there are times I…just…can’t…find the time.

But that’s ok. There is always next week.

But I digress…

Last week I spoke about “Peak Uncertainty” and the addition of the Coronavirus to the list of issues that housing market participants have to process.

If you want to take your mind off of this global pandemic for two minutes, I let out a hearty laugh of relief watching this old clip from the movie This is Spinal Tap.

I’m attending a RAC planning session in Dallas right now for our fall conference so sadly I needed to cut it short this week.

But I digressed again…

Q: What Will Be The Impact Of The Coronavirus On The U.S. Housing Market? A: Who knows?

That’s right. No one knows. The first issue is to focus on common sense and listen to health experts instead of pundits. There are way too many people pontificating on a topic that they don’t have any expertise. I’m not about to do that here.

So start here.

If you’re desperate for investment advice in a wildly volatile stock market, then perhaps read this.

But I digressed yet again…

If Mortgage Rates Drop After You’re Locked In, You Might Be Screwed

Julian Hebron of The Basis Point wrote a really interesting post on this question given the sharp mortgage rate drop.

New Elliman Web Site Has A Home and A Shout Out For Our Market Reports

Douglas Elliman Real Estate launched their new web site this week and in addition to having a new home for our current market reports and a bunch of future reports in development, this snappy video gives our reports a nice shout out:

I’ve been authoring a series of

Public Record Isn’t The Holy Grail For Housing Market Data It Is Assumed To Be

To many, the public record is the ultimate resource for verified housing market data. To me, at its worst, it actually stands for teenagers going to the town hall, earning minimum wage to transpose property transfers on a note pad and going back to the office to enter them in a database. As a result, the public record is not infallible.

A friend of mine has worked hard to create an incredible property data resource – sorry to tease but more on Propertybook later – here’s a little video clip of an error identified in NYC’s ACRIS (public record).

Appraiserville

(For earlier appraisal industry commentary, visit my old clunky REIC site.)

Back next week!

At the RAC appraiser’s planning session in Dallas for the fall conference!

OFT (One Final Thought)

In light of the new James Bond movie being pushed back to November from its original April opening…

Brilliant Idea #1

If you need something rock solid in your life (particularly on Friday afternoons) and someone forwarded this to you, or you think you already subscribed, sign up here for these weekly Housing Notes. And be sure to share with a friend or colleague if you enjoy them because:

– They’ll be more like James Bond;
– You’ll be more viral;
– And I’ll keep writing these Housing Notes.

Brilliant Idea #2

You’re obviously full of insights and ideas as a reader of Housing Notes. I appreciate every email I receive and it helps me craft the next week’s Housing Note.

See you next week.

Jonathan J. Miller, CRP, CRE, Member of RAC
President/CEO
Miller Samuel Inc.
Real Estate Appraisers & Consultants
Matrix Blog
@jonathanmiller

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