TweetUp: Bubble Hour to celebrate “Triple Dip” in housing market?

Insert Beer Googles

Monthly and quarterly housing statistics are being released today from local and national sources and we ready to celebrate — prices are down again!  As our DIY homebuyer clients know from The Real Estate Cafe’s previous blog and intranet posts, we recommend they develop a slideshow or business case to support their offers. So, as buyer agents who negotiate aggressively for the lowest possible prices, we hope other Boston.com readers agree that headlines and charts about a “Triple Dip in housing” are powerful arguments to add to our “Talking Offers.”

Here’s a quick summary:

  • While Boston and Massachusetts are often out of step with national statistics, Banker & Tradesman reported that sales are up but median prices are down again, by 4%;
  • That’s the fourth straight month of declining prices; and
  • The 5th consecutive month of median sales prices under $300,000.
Looking forward

What’s your take on where housing prices are headed the balance of this year, and over the next five years.  Anyone want to TweetUp OFFLINE to discuss the latest statistics? If so, we’re invite you to share this link on via your social networks:

BUBBLE HOUR: #TweetUp 4Lunch> #Housing now done what could arguably be called #TripleDip read.bi/TripleDip #realestate#housing #bubble

— @RealEstateCafe February 28, 2012

FLASHBACK

Would you believe that we hosted our first “Bubble Hour” six years ago?  The housing market was so overheated the previous year, that you may be stunned by the numbers in this Flashback and amused to know that Craigslist deleted our forum posts, see our April 2005 rant “Bubble Hour” Banned in Boston:

With Boston.com reporting that traffic on their real estate section surpassed 7 million pageviews for the first time in March 2005 and more than 1 million homes-for-sale searches, isn’t it fair to ask if consumers should think twice before rushing into an overheated housing market and to give them a forum — online and off — to learn more about the risks and benefits of buying in a real estate bubble?

TweetUp Times & Locations

We can TweetUp in Cambridge or downtown today, would Harvard Square, the North End, or my favorite, the Waterfront Cafe at the Institute of Contemporary Art be convenient for anyone? No need to order an expensive meal, we can simply talk over coffee.  Available online or off, over a late lunch today, mid or late afternoon, or maybe after 7pm tonight. Flexible other times this week, just propose a time

If you’re a seller, we recognize that today’s stories may have you crying in your beer as they did during the summer of 2008, but we welcome your perspectives on the housing market as well.

Shhh — want a Sneak peek at Best of Breed slides from our “Talking Offers”?

Menu of Talking Points

Want a sneak peek at some of the “Best of Breed” slides Real Estate Cafe clients have submitted in the past with their “Talking Offers?

peek-at-menu-of-talking-points-from-pa

Related Articles

“Bubble Hour” banned in Boston?

Craig_linebubble1_1The following message was posted to the housing forum of CraigsList in Boston, hoping to get some feedback on a proposal to host an educational seminar to discuss the real estate bubble.  Instead of getting intelligent feedback on the merits of a potential monthly series, I got flamed for spamming and the post was abruptly removed.  The proposed monthly meeting has the genuine intent of informing and protecting real estate consumer during a time of great economic uncertainty and heated debate among economists, including Alan Greenspan, about when the bubble will peak.

With Boston.com reporting that traffic on their real estate section surpassed 7 million pageviews for the first time in March 2005 and more than 1 million homes-for-sale searches, isn’t it fair to ask if consumers should think twice before rushing into an overheated housing market and to give them a forum — online and off — to learn more about the risks and benefits of buying in a real estate bubble?

To dismiss that question as spam seems to have been a disservice to CraigsList users.  If, on the other hand, my original post below inadvertently crossed the line between posting comments / content and spam, I apologize to Craig Newmark (shown in the cartoon above) and his readers and thank them for clarifying the boundaries of acceptable behavior for this Newbie.  Banned or not on CraigsList’, we’d like to know what you think about hosting the educational seminar or monthly series of "Bubble Hours" described below. 

Bubble Hour:  Monthly meeting to discuss

As a real estate consultant and newcomer to CraigsList forums, I was pleased to find considerable debate about the real estate bubble, enough that one post last year asked, “Can the RE Bubble have its own forum….PLEASE??”

Would anyone, particularly would be home buyers or sellers, be interest in attending a one time seminar, or if worthwhile a monthly meeting, to discuss the real estate bubble in person and hear a featured speaker?

I have tentatively lined up a room at a centrally located hotel on Route 128 for the evening of May 5th. If you are interested in attending, please contact me offline at recafe@mac.com

Regardless of your interest in attending an experimental meeting, readers are invited to visit The Real Estate Cafe’s blog to discuss the real estate bubble, learn how to save money in real estate transactions, get information on FSBO seminars, and a variety of other topics:

realestatecafe.blogs.com/real_estate_bubble/

Should be interesting to hear what Alan Greenspan says today, particularly following the articles in the Boston Herald on April 19.

Bill Wendel, Founder
The Real Estate Cafe
Cambridge, MA
617-661-4046
recafe@mac.com
www.realestatecafe.com
realestatecafe.blogs.com

Boston “Bubble Hour” to discuss February housing statistics

The Massachusetts Association of Realtors (MAR) will announce their official February housing statistics tomorrow, Thursday March 23, 2006; and once again, a number of leading bubble bloggers in Boston invite you chat about them as soon as they are released and press coverage unfolds.

Would you believe the first "Bubble Hour"
generated 36 pages of content including over a dozen graphs submitted by a number of bloggers and savvy consumers?   If you missed that chat, the transcript and graphs of January 2006 housing statistics are accessible online but comments or questions should be posted below. 

Better yet, why not participate in our second Bubble Hour(WILL REOPEN CHAT BETWEEN 9PM AND 10PM THIS EVENING.)  Please let us know if you’d prefer to chat online or meet offline by emailing RECafe@mac.com.  Either way, you can enrich the discussion by posting your question below, or submitting them privately beforehand.  Graphs are our specialty so let us know if there is any data you’d like to see presently visually.  As before, chat participants with different perspectives — both
geographically and with respect to their opinion about the housing
bubble — are earnestly sought.  Homebuyers, sellers, professionals, and press are all welcome.

We’d be particularly delighted if someone from MAR joined us to answer questions directly, too.  After (1) single family home sales fell to their lowest volume in ten years during January and (2) year-over-year prices fell for the first time in 115 months, my guess is that MAR will say that housing rebounded in February 2006.  More evidence of a "soft landing," industry spin, or a mild winter?  We want to hear your opinion.

Responses

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

HTML Snippets Powered By : XYZScripts.com