Housing.com News, Analysis & Opinion: Wednesday Housing News

But what the flip market lacks is a real sense of building a community worth living in. Anyone can slap a coat of paint and knock down a few walls in an apartment building, then call it a condo--hell, Washington, D.C. has raised that to an art form! But what happens when you get there? Does your pad have all the necessary amenities? Are there good schools nearby for the kids? How's the commute? Are the walls thick enough to block out your hot neighbors going at it on a Sunday morning? :)

Also thanks to Inman, I found the latest salvo from NAR on why banks shouldn't get into real estate. Of course, this all seems like a giant case of hair-splitting, since you don't get money for home loans from Joe's Chicken shack, so banks are already up to their toupees in the business as it is.

And indeed--banks are already getting deeper into the game just by pushing borrowers to refinance to fixed loans, if only to avoid a tsunami of foreclosures. Hell, BB&T threw down the gauntlet and said that it wouldn't lend to developers using Kelo as a justification for eminent domain seizure. If that's not political, or a market move, what is, really?

I'm certainly not a fan of banks possessing even more power than they do, but I think the real fear of the real estate industry is that if banks can make RE deals, that means they don't need third parties to do the work for them. Tough break for the commission-based, sales-focused, close or bust folks, eh?

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Found via Inman: Tomorrow's Cities, Tomorrow's Suburbs. This completely squares with the rise of "New Urbanism" that is bewitching urban planners, architects, developers, and of course, flippers. But what the flip market lacks is a real sense of building a community worth living in. Anyone can slap a coat of paint and knock down a few walls in an apartment building, then call it a condo--hell, Washington, D.C. has raised that to an art form! But what happens when you get there? Does your pad have all the necessary amenities? Are there good schools nearby for the kids? How's the commute? Are the walls thick enough to block out your hot neighbors going at it on a Sunday morning? :) Also thanks to Inman, I found the latest salvo from NAR on why banks shouldn't get into real estate. Of course, this all seems like a giant case of hair-splitting, since you don't get money for home loans from Joe's Chicken shack, so banks are already up to their toupees in the business as it is. And indeed--banks are already getting deeper into the game just by pushing borrowers to refinance to fixed loans, if only to avoid a tsunami of foreclosures. Hell, BB&T threw down the gauntlet and said that it wouldn't lend to developers using Kelo as a justification for eminent domain seizure. If that's not political, or a market move, what is, really? I'm certainly not a fan of banks possessing even more power than they do, but I think the real fear of the real estate industry is that if banks can make RE deals, that means they don't need third parties to do the work for them. Tough break for the commission-based, sales-focused, close or bust folks, eh?