Real Estate Links From Around the Web

I read a ridiculous amount of blogs and news sites. Call it an obsession. Blame it on my iPad – that thing is a content consumers dream.

Thought I’d share some of the recent goodness I’ve come across. If I was smart, I’d turn this into a regular feature. However, I’ve tried “regular features” in the past and failed miserably at delivering them consistently. I don’t like failing, so I won’t even go down the road of claiming this will be a regular thing here on Phoenix Real Estate Guy. We’ll just call it, “quasi-regular” which really means, “whenever Jay remembers and gets around to it.”

So without further ado…

Dan Green, who writes The Mortgage Reports — what I think is one of the best mortgage blogs on the planet — brings us, Spring 2011 : The Complete FHA Streamline Refinance Guidelines. This is the single best article I’ve seen on FHA streamline refinancing.

Local experts dispute Zillow’s housing stats is an interesting article in the Phoenix Business Journal. Zillow, for those not aware, is a national real estate site that has home listings and an “AVM” (Automated Valuation Model) that estimates home values. They also publish a boatload of real estate related data and statistics. In an earlier article in the same publication, Zillow claimed that nearly 70 percent of mortgages in Phoenix were under water. That number seemed high to me, and several “local experts” seem to agree.

Those that read much real estate stuff don’t have to go far to find Phoenix at the top of most lists – price drops, foreclosures, short sales – we are typically in the Top 10 (shouldn’t those really be “Bottom 10” lists?). The New York Times gives us, “Housing Market Looks Sickest in Cities That Once Seemed Immune” and we find out that the Phoenix’s and Las Vegas’ of the world are not alone in seeing a dip in real estate prices and overall market conditions. Heck, Atlanta is fairing worse than us. Phoenix is still #5 on their year-over-year price drop list, just ahead of Seattle – despite two local Seattle economists who “were quoted all but guaranteeing that Seattle was immune “if history is any indication.”  I’m no economist, but here’s a tip – NO PLACE is immune from housing prices falling or economic struggles. Good grief, haven’t we learned yet that thinking home prices always rise is just stupid?

And finally, there’s a new real estate blog in town! ARMLS (the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service) has spawned ARMLSBLOG.com – which according to them is, “the official blog of Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service. We’re focused on real estate, technology and all things MLS as yet another service for our Subscribers.” Sounds cool. Their first post of sustenance is already generating some good comments. I suspect interaction will be high. Annoyingly, you have to register to comment, but it’s painless and probably a concession to the attorney types who tend to fear uncontrolled commenting…

Hope you enjoy reading these! As always, your thoughts and comments are appreciated. Should I attempt to do “linkage” articles like this on a quasi-regular basis? Is it helpful? Waste of bandwidth? Does it even really matter? Inquiring minds want to know…

If you would like to read the original blog, please click here.

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