Sales of New Homes Pick Up After a Big Drop - New York Times

A good article in today's NYT about a slight upturn in the market....

Sales of New Homes Pick Up After a Big Drop - New York Times

Real Estate and the Single Woman

This is a pretty interesting read from Yahoo Finance about the trend of single women buying real estate at higher levels than ever before: Real Estate and the Single Woman: Money & Happiness - Yahoo! Finance

...However, This Is A Victory For Eminent Domain Opponents

The Institute For Justice has been allowed into a case in Long Branch to defend the homeowners who are trying to fight off the city who is trying to take their property so that it can be redeveloped into luxury condos...This is the more routine form of government "taking" that has the government looking to seize peoples property so that they can generate higher taxes.

All of these cases will have SERIOUS implications on all of our ability to privately own property in the future and all property owners should be against this legalized government taking.

Details here: APP.COM - Eminent domain foes win a ruling Asbury Park Press Online

A Defeat for Property Owners In the Eminent Domain Battle

This story details how Mount Laurel has won the approval to seize land that a builder owns and has approvals for to sub-divide and develop the property...and thus increase the taxes...to preserve the land as open space.

This flies in the face of the usual rationale for government "taking" of property...which is to take the property and re-develop it with higher taxes in mind; this was the rationale in the highly publicized Supreme Court ruling in New London, Ct.

Check out the Asbury Park Press article for more information: APP.COM Asbury Park Press Online

Selling your home in slump? Don’t panic - Real Estate - MSNBC.com

This is a link to a great article about the housing market. I agree with much that is in the article.

I am confident that this is just a market correction brining prices back to the historic norms of price growth rates.

My experience, locally, is that houses that are priced right are still selling. Buyers know a good value when they see it and will come off the sidelines for it so as not to miss the opportunity.

The best advice in this article is DO NOT list at a "lets just see if we can get it" price...by the time you realize that your not going to get it the market may have moved below the price point that you really were willing to take. Be realistic...and price your property correctly and it will sell.

Selling your home in slump? Don’t panic - Real Estate - MSNBC.com