John Mulkey, Housing Guru

Recently I wrote a POST asking the AR experts to help me define some proven techniques to sell homes in slow markets, and I promised to report back after tabulating the responses.  I received several quality responses both here on Active Rain as well as from several successful agents I interviewe...

With the average foreclosed home in 2010 selling at a 28% discount from traditional sales, and with banks preparing to increase their sales of distressed properties, foreclosed homes will offer even greater bargains in 2011.  Continuing sluggishness in the housing market, combined with high level...

Let’s Stop Whining About the Mortgage Interest Deduction   As congress and the Administration begin considering the new budget, there have been loud cries in opposition to cutting what some consider “sacred cow” programs, such as the mortgage interest deduction, social security, and subsidies to ...

  Today I received an email from a subscriber to The Housing Guru, asking: “How will the new Fannie/Freddie rules affect home ownership?”  The writer planned to purchase a home in the next 3 to 5 years and wanted to know if the mortgage process would get easier or more difficult because of the ch...

A recent survey from NAR and Harris Interactive and reported in RISMedia seems to indicate that homebuyers prefer to receive as much service as possible from one source—the office of their real estate agent.  And while the recent housing crisis and recession seemed to have left the majority with ...

Don’t be embarrassed if you are confused by the January employment numbers; even the Labor Department admitted that this week’s report, on the surface, didn’t make sense.  And that’s really the key—looking at the numbers on a weekly or even monthly basis provides little understanding of where we’...

Banks May Be Dangerous But We’ve Been the Enablers   In 2008 the government spent billions saving the banks and Wall Street firms “too big to fail,” and the American taxpayer received little but the bill.  The recent release of the FCIC report pointed out what we already knew: We live in a plutoc...

Recent articles have described how aging baby boomers will impact the housing market; and with numbers that may reach as high as 77 million, the results could be significant.  Boomers made their presence felt during the past decade as “adult communities” spread across the country, and many builde...

  California Court Says Foreclosed Homeowner Can Sue Bank for Fraud   Many of the recent news stories about bankers have been less than sympathetic; and a new ruling from a California court provides yet one more illustration of why public opinion of the banking industry has fallen so low.  In wha...