Louis's Blog

  Click here for a podcast recorded Friday July 12 2013 covering the state of the economy and real estate

    Yesterday in a question and answer session Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made it clear that the Fed’s dual mandate, one that includes maximum employment was not being met.   Bernanke said that he was not satisfied with the employment situation because of underemployment and the low la...

  “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven..” ― John Milton, Paradise Lost   As the real estate market gained steam earlier this year, a common anti bubble meme emerged- “this ain’t no bubble, home prices aren’t at their 2005-2006 levels”.   Now that i...

  Google recently caught the attention of Realtors when it announced that web sites with bad or non existent mobile web sites would be hurt in its search engine results. Perhaps a more important reason for real estate agents to optimize their sites for mobile isn’t to gain or maintain elusive SEO...

  “I tried for modelling work but it was a bit slow and that’s when I took a part-time job at McDonalds. It gave me income while I was waiting for my big break and at the very least I could eat.” Sharon Stone Friday as the jobs report was being released Ryan Sloper and I were doing our weekly po...

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Yesterday's job report was touted as further evidence of economic recovery. While there were 195,000 new jobs created, mostly ignored was the surge in the underemployment rate from 13.8 % to 14.3%. What will this mean for Fed's plans to taper QE and how might it impact the real estate market? Ar...

    “Demand and desire are infinite, supply and production while often plentiful, are always finite” – Smaulgld Last week we noted that Consumer Sentiment is a poor economic indicator. Consumer sentiment is up despite a rash of economic reports indicating that the consumer’s positive outlook is P...

    The Part-Time Economy and Part Time Recovery The Huffington Post recently reported that one fifth of all new jobs created since the recession ended were temporary jobs.   It’s tough being under 30 today. For the baby boomers growing up in the 1950′s and ’60′s being under 30 was like getting a...

    The price of silver is declining while real estate values are climbing. Sales of U.S. Silver Eagles are at a record pace. Sales of new homes are at relative historic lows. Silver at $18.79 an ounce today is trading below its 1980 high of $50 an ounce. The median new home price is at an all ti...