tucson: Loonie Rules! Canadian Buying Power Up 6% for Tucson Home!
- 11/01/07 12:02 AM
Goooood morning, Canada! While you're having your cuppa tea this morning, consider this: the cost of owning your winter home in warm, sunny Tucson, Arizona went down by more than six percent yesterday. The Canadian Dollar is worth $1.06 US since our Federal Reserve dropped the Fed Funds rate yesterday. How long has it been since the loonie had this kind of buying power in the US? Never in your lifetime! You have to go back 130 years to find a south-of-the-border real estate shopping opportunity like this. That would be the year 1877. The main man in the Santa Cruz valley where Tucson is … (8 comments)
tucson: Late Night AR--The Few, The Awake!
- 10/30/07 11:48 PM
Out of 55,526 members, 53 are currently logged in. It makes me wonder who the other 52 are, and why they can't sleep through the night like normal people. We're not your normal Active Rainers. That's Cheryl Johnson in the first position, top-left, with the big glasses. What you can't see from her AR Member picture (can't call it a photo, can I?) is that she really does have a full head of hair, and her eyes are half-shut, probably because of the late hour. Photoshop reveals such details when you adjust the image with Shadow/Highlights. Voila! Next to her is … (27 comments)
tucson: Countrywide Still Has Power to Move Markets
- 10/29/07 03:51 AM
Here's a short list to put a smile on your face. Stock markets worldwide rallied on news from Countrywide Financial that the worst is over for them in the subprime mortgage crisis. Search "Countrywide" on Bloomberg this morning, and the results will touch every corner of the globe. Among the markets that are up on the news: Asia Japan Australia South Korea Taiwan US futures Add to that the news that the the risk of buying corporate debt is down in anticipation of the Federal Reserve's Halloween pajama party, and this just might be a good week for those Real Estate … (22 comments)
tucson: Boomers To Control 91% of America's Wealth. Better Legislate Lenders!
- 10/22/07 06:18 AM
In less than a year, I'll turn 60. September 24, 2008. Mark it on your calendar so you don't forget to send a card. I try to keep up with the government. It's hard, but someone's got to do it. If you're a "boomer," and you make your living in the Mortgage industry, strap on your helmet! Riding the wave of "mortgage fraud" that is all the rage right now, and under the guise of protecting us from financial scams, more than one lawmaker is getting ready to regulate us more thoroughly. Here's an example from the website of Senator Wayne Allard … (21 comments)
tucson: Update on I-10 Construction in Tucson, AZ
- 10/17/07 04:16 PM
Summer's gone, and the snowbirds are coming back. The Interstate 10 widening project that began this summer is right on track, and maybe a little ahead of schedule. Maybe it's me, but the predictions about a deleterious effect on commerce in this town of more than a million seem to have been overblown. I drive up Starr Pass on the way home most nights. It's the 22nd street intersection with the Interstate, where the closed-for-the-duration section of I-10 begins. People have learned to adjust. What Tucsonans call rush hour traffic would be considered a blessing in most cities our size on … (4 comments)
tucson: Tucson Estates II Neighborhood Watch Program Success
- 10/07/07 04:10 PM
150 residents of the gated community called Tucson Estates II showed up for an ice cream social to celebrate our successful implementation of the Neighborhood Watch Program. Representatives of the Pima County Sheriff's Department attended as well. Tucson Estates II is one of the safest communities in this city of one million people! Taxes are low, homes are reasonably priced, and jumbo mortgages are not required! For the period beginning April 5, 2007 through October 4, 2007, our community crime statistics are as follows: Burglary: Zero Larceny: Zero Stolen Vehicles: Zero Vandalism: One Suspicious Activity: One Nestled in the shadow of … (18 comments)
tucson: 10 Year Bond Slumps; Rates Rise on Jobs Report
- 10/05/07 04:14 PM
Friday, 5 October '07--For the next couple of weeks, don't look for mortgage interest rates to move any lower. Today's surprise jobs report showed stronger than expected growth, sending stocks up and bond prices down. The ten year bond, bellwether to future mortgage interest rates, posted a yield of 4.64%, up 12 basis points. Expectations for a second rate cut by the Fed diminished. Stay tuned, though. October has been known to hammer the stock market, and if this happens, the price of bonds will soar, giving mortgage lenders and REALTORS a little boost for the upcoming holiday season. And that's … (10 comments)
tucson: Unintended Consequences: Hang On to That Sears Card You Got in College
- 10/01/07 02:15 AM
Bad things happen unnecessarily. This four ton boulder obeyed the law of gravity just a little sooner than the construction crew intended, as it was being hoisted by crane into the back yard of the home. A little better planning would have avoided a very negative consequence. It's the same with your credit score. As predictably as the law of gravity brought this rock to earth, your credit score will plunge if you cut the line that's holding it skyward. A major strand in that line is a little thing called credit history. Here's how it works, (and you need to teach this to your kids.) … (32 comments)
tucson: How Much Does It Take to Make You Happy?
- 09/27/07 04:50 PM
David Oliver, in Deming, NM, captured the essence of optimism in the face of a storm in this photo. (You can save a high resolution version for your desktop by clicking here. Do it. You deserve a gift for subscribing to my blog.) Does the market for Real Estate have you complaining about your current volume of business? If you're a lender like me, are you sitting in your office playing solitare on the computer, like one associate I know? There's a market for sunshine. Just a little--only a few rays focused on a single spot, will capture the imagination of those around you. Optimism … (32 comments)
tucson: Have We Bottomed Out in the Credit Crunch?
- 09/26/07 01:17 AM
Is the worst behind us in the credit crunch? When my account exec from First Franklin stopped calling on me earlier this year, it seemed that the handwriting was on the wall for another mortgage lender. Merrill Lynch bought the mortgage unit from National City a year ago to compete with Lehman's mortgage business. That might not have been such a good move in retrospect, but who knew? Someone's buying the stock again, after short positions forced it down. And Goldman Sachs' CFO is quoted in a bullish Bloomberg story on September 24th as saying "There are going to be opportunities in … (8 comments)
tucson: Canadian Lives at Risk: Unintended Consequence of Lending "Freeze"
- 09/25/07 01:01 AM
Without critical food supplies in store before Arctic winter cuts off contact, the lives of 200 Canadian workers could have been jeopardized as an unintended consequence of the subprime debacle in the credit markets. Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. sends annual supplies during the warmer months of the year by the route shown on the right. They pay for these with lines of credit. Those lines of credit dried up last week. Bloomberg's Rob Delaney in Toronto explained it this way: "Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Baffinland ran short of funds to pay for food, fuel and drilling equipment after investing in commercial paper that … (7 comments)
tucson: Ethics & Risk: It's Amazing What You'll Find if You Dig a Little...
- 09/23/07 12:09 PM
300,000 people traverse this gem of a beach called Long Beach Island each season. A very few of them dig down to see what they can find in the sand. Since WWI, unexploded military ammunition (ordnance) buried beneath the sand in Surf City, NJ has threatened millions of happy, clueless, vacationing beach bums. No one knew. It didn't matter, because no one knew. That didn't alleviate the danger. Had people known, they likely would have avoided the area until the danger was removed. But they didn't know. At one point, someone knew the ordnance was there. Then, however, the remote New Jersey beach … (11 comments)
tucson: You Might Want to Consider Moving to Tucson, Arizona!
- 09/13/07 05:58 PM
An intrinsic value of holding title to Real Estate is that one owns the sky above it. Spectacular cloud formations move into the Southwest as the June sun heats the desert floor. I like to think that the towering clouds drive before them flocks of the Lesser Hardy Snowbirds. They seem to leave en masse. One day they're there, chattering like magpies about cabins, and lakes to the north. The next, they're gone! This seasonal migration provides a necessary period of tranquillity for Tucsonans. True desert denizens, we settle in to enjoy one of the true delights of desert living--the summer monsoons. I'm no economist, but … (21 comments)
tucson: Labor Day Feast on the Boardwalk, Seaside Heights, NJ
- 09/09/07 01:34 PM
Is there anything as downright delicious as fresh seafood at the Jersey Shore? Labor Day Weekend found us in Middletown, NJ. We're transplants from Long Beach Island to Tucson, Arizona. My Darlin's sister lives half an hour down the Garden State Parkway, and that's where we were headed. We checked out of the hotel late morning, dreading the drive. Radio tuned to a local station for traffic updates, off we went. It wasn't as bad as we remembered! The west has nothing like the boardwalks of the little towns that dot the eastern seaboard, especially those of North Jersey. (There really … (8 comments)
tucson: Post More Blogs About Real Estate! Active Rain is on Page 3!
- 09/06/07 03:31 PM
Google "Real Estate Blogs." I did, after reading TLW...ROAR's post yesterday. Active Rain (my favorite forum) is listed all the way back on page 3. If I had a bigger screen, maybe it would have been at the bottom of page 2. Maybe not. The point is, as an entity, Active Rain's web presence isn't where it needs to be. It was listed at number 27 as of 4:30 this morning. Inman is number 5. So what, you ask? With nearly 47,000 members--many of you the best and brightest in our industry--we can change that with a little focus on two … (32 comments)
tucson: REALTORS®: Do Lenders w/ Real Estate Licenses Threaten Your Livelihood?
- 09/06/07 01:40 AM
It's Kate Bourland's fault. "West Coast Kate" is a lender with New Key Home Lending in Redding, CA. You can see from her Active Rain photo there that she stirs up a lot of fun and mischief. I'm betting her parents went grey prematurely. I particularly like to read other lender's blogs. Kate's is one of my favorites on the Active Rain Real Estate Network. She's thinking, she says in her latest post, of joining Redding's Multiple Listing Service as an Associate. She wonders if this would be worthwhile for her. It got me thinking. I'd like to ask the REALTOR® community a bigger question: Do … (35 comments)
tucson: Interstate 10 Project To Have Positive Effect on Real Estate in Tucson, AZ
- 09/05/07 01:42 AM
The dust storm blew across the interstate unannounced. In less than 30 seconds, visibility dropped from 10 miles to 1/10th of a mile. 10 seconds later it was hard to see half the length of a football field.We make the national news when this happens, because people die in massive pile-ups. Usually they're from out of town. Dust does in Tucson what fog does around the Great Lakes, and snow does on the Great Plains. It's unexpected in sunny Tucson.I was driving westbound to my very first real estate listing in Eloy, Arizona. That's about halfway between Tucson and Tempe. The … (19 comments)
tucson: She was afraid... to go out... in the water...
- 09/03/07 11:43 AM
Isn't this situation a little ridiculous? Roy H. Williams, my all-time favorite "Wizard of Ads," asked the question in his Monday Morning Memo: "Will Fear of Risk Blind Your Client to Opportunity?" It got me thinking about my own clients who have pulled in their horns, so to speak, because they're afraid of investing "before real estate bottoms out." These are the same real estate investors who absolutely mock stock market "timers."Later in the day I was reading another favorite of mine--economist, author, actor and lawyer Ben Stein. You really ought to read his entire article in the September 3rd … (26 comments)
tucson: Paint Your Success with Words: The Powerful Canvas of the Mind
- 08/21/07 04:38 PM
I visited Technorati's Tag Page to see what the world outside Active Rain is talking about. The biggest topic of concern in the English speaking world this hour is PHP (lots of techies on line right now,) followed by SHOES, RINGTONES, Diet and Weight. Discount the techie types, and Shoes rule the blogosphere. Ringtones are being downloaded by the zillions. Moms are worried more about their figures than about the Real Estate market or the pricing of a jumbo loan. That's pretty wonderful! It gives me a hopeful perspective on my business. Tomorrow, I'll spend three hours prospecting--something I've let fall … (7 comments)
The Arizona Sonoran desert is surprisingly beautiful. Eons of wind and rain sculpt the granite backbone of the Tucson Mountains into amazingly intricate forms. My favorite is the Rock Angel of the Desert. Facing an outcropping opposite Cat Mountain, she stands silent, wings folded, head bowed, face obscured by its cloak. Her form is ethereal. For half an hour during the afternoon the sun paints the rock face with shadows, and she appears. As the sun inexorably moves on its way to evening, she disappears from view. No named trail leads you to her, but the location between Cat Mountain and Cat Back … (16 comments)
Goooood morning, Canada! While you're having your cuppa tea this morning, consider this: the cost of owning your winter home in warm, sunny Tucson, Arizona went down by more than six percent yesterday. The Canadian Dollar is worth $1.06 US since our Federal Reserve dropped the Fed Funds rate yesterday. 
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