Real Estate Market

Why We Should Care About UK Housing Prices

Recently, I wrote about my trip to London, England and how housing prices there, in my opinion, were getting out of control. I commented about how home prices in London had peaked and how the market was starting too cool. After five consecutive rate increases by the Bank…

In Search of an Honest News Headline

When I read the popular news, I'm often frustrated by how the news is incorrectly interpreted and presented to the public by reporters. Could it be that they just tell us what they want us to believe or are they simply not doing a good enough job uncovering…

Still for Sale and Even Cheaper

You may recall a PROFIT CONFIDENTIAL commentary last month in which I wrote about the Toronto real estate market. In specific, I was in downtown Toronto last month and called a couple of real estate agents to see some for-sale condos. I wanted to see first-hand how the…

Pondering Interest Rates

So, what do we have here? U.S. April New Home Sales fell 11.8% -- their biggest monthly drop in more than 10 years. Funny how a one-percentage-point increase in the 30-year mortgage rate makes such a big change in new housing demand. Funnier still is how all the…

Big Homes, Big Loans and Rising Interest Rates

"Toronto Sees Surge in Sales of Million-Dollar Starter Homes," reads the recent headline in the National Post. The article in the Canadian paper goes on to say that 222 homes sold in the greater Toronto area in the first quarter of this year for over $1 million--a fourfold…

Two Wise Old Men and One Bright Young Lady

The Center for Policy and Economic Research is a liberal economic research organization in Washington founded by economists Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot. These two gentlemen, whom I call the Two Wise Old Men, correctly predicted the stock market bubble that burst in 2000. Today, they are convinced…