John Mulkey, Housing Guru

The Commerce Department reported today that orders for U.S. made “durable” goods fell in June by 2.5%, the largest drop since January. The decline follows modest gains for April and May, but reflects the economy’s continuing struggle to regain its footing.   Durable goods, defined as those items ...

I was inspired to write this post as I responded to Gary Woltal’s recent post: What the for Sale by Owners Don’t Understand. As I commented on Gary’s post I realized that many home sellers and buyers only see the process from a one-sided and often misguided point of view. And many of them have of...

With a rash of Georgia bank failures this past week, many are scratching their heads wondering why Georgia leads the nation in bank failures. A superficial look into the numbers would indicate a more severe problem than actually exists. While the state has been hard hit by the recession—Georgia’s...

Just who is The Housing Guru and why should you care? John Mulkey, a housing expert with 4 decades of experience, established The Housing Guru to fill the void he discovered in real estate and housing websites. While existing websites offer good information in one or more areas of home ownership,...

While much of the interest in the H1N1 or swine flu virus has faded since this past spring, with flu season rapidly approaching, many are wondering: Is it time to be concerned? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, as well as the World Health Organization, perhap...

They say that God watches over idiots and little children; and somehow I know that’s true. Otherwise I’d have never survived my childhood, for many times I was both. My mother once told me that “angels lose feathers when reaching down to lift us up;” and if that’s the case, my angels are perhaps ...

With the declines we've experienced in home prices during the past couple of years, the rent versus buy numbers are beginning to merge. Several months ago I wrote a blog post comparing renting versus owning a home, and in the post I disagreed with an article on Yahoo Real Estate, 5 Reasons Rentin...

In a report released today, the Inspector General of the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, Neil Barofsky, announced that taxpayer exposure could run as high as $24 trillion, a number most of us cannot imagine. “Under the worst of circumstances, the report said, the government's maximum...

Winston Churchill, in a quote describing how we should face adversity, said, “If you are going through hell, keep going.” Nothing better describes how we should best respond to difficult situations. Don’t stop; don’t waste time lamenting; just forge ahead.   There was once a time we lacked the ve...

Many recent headlines have trumpeted the economic recovery, but what they fail to tell us is: Where will it come from? As the stock market responds to earnings reports from Goldman Sachs, J P Morgan, and reports that China’s economy is experiencing strong growth, the financial talking heads and g...