Category
Opinion
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12.01.08How long until we reach bottom?According to economist Mike Shedlock, and based upon data from Japan, the housing market won't hit bottom for another seven years. We’d love to be your real estate closing attorneys in Atlanta Georgia. Want to know more? Contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss how Harlan and Associates can be of service to you! Number 7, originally uploaded by HelenPalsson.
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11.14.08Audio: Do you know how much your house is worth?On NPR's Talk of The Nation: With home values in a steep decline, many homeowners have been forced to sell their houses for less than they paid for them. Still, experts insist that owning a home in a failing economy can be a good thing. Dean Foust and Robert Shiller explain why. Robert Shilleris a Professor of Economics at Yale. He also co-created the Case/Shiller Home Price Index. It's a very good listen on today's housing market. We’d love to be your closing attorneys in Atlanta Georgia. Want to know more? Contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss how Harlan and Associates can be ...
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09.19.08Bailout!Unless you’ve been living under a rock recently, I’m sure you’re aware that the federal government is working on a massive bailout of Wall Street. This plan is intended finally to cure the financial markets of all problems related to the housing industry, mortgage-backed security issues in the secondary market, and restore confidence to an otherwise shell-shocked marketplace. Read more: CNN | Bloomberg | MarketWatch | The Wall Street Journal. While the details of the plan are still being worked out, there are a number of things I believe that can be predicted with some amount of confidence: The plan will cost the ...
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09.15.08Flameout on Wall StreetIn one weekend: Lehman Brothers: Bankrupt. Merrill Lynch: Sold to Bank of America. AIG: Massive Restructuring. And according to BoA: The financial system is facing unprecedented stress. We’d love to be your Georgia Closing Attorneys. Want to know more? Contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss how Harlan and Associates can be of service to you! 75/366 - Collapse, originally uploaded by Lily 0_0.
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09.08.08Is the Fannie/Freddie bailout the end of real estate woes?With this weekend’s seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the government, many were celebrating the end of the housing crisis. Certainly, the takeover of the two GSEs – who between them have lost around $12 billion since last summer – is an historic move by the government to prop up a housing industry that is weathering its worst downturn since the great depression. And it shows a long-term commitment by the government, and by extension us the taxpayers, to keeping the housing gears going. But it is certainly not a miracle cure for all that is ailing the real estate ...
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08.06.08Not my house!Perception and reality. It’s an interesting thing how people will believe what they want, despite any and all facts to the contrary. Real estate web site Zillow.com released a survey today showing the difference between what we want to believe and what’s really going on in the real estate market. And according to the survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, 62 percent of Americans believe that their homes have maintained or increased in value in the past year when in fact 77 percent of homes have actually seen their home values fall. It’s called the “Not My House!” sentiment, and Zillow created a ...