Thu Nov 30 2006 Newspaper, Bubble Blogs Feed the Real Estate Obsession (pbs.org)
Thu Nov 30 2006 Bernanke says Washington does not know how bad housing really is (telegraph.co.uk)
Thu Nov 30 2006 How I would have blown a housing bubble - if I had done it Or: Confessions of a former Fed Chairman (rgemonitor.com)
Thu Nov 30 2006 San Luis Obispo, CA house prices decline 7% (sanluisobispo.com)
Thu Nov 30 2006 Sacramento House Price Analysis (homepricehistory.blogspot.com)
Thu Nov 30 2006 Metro Denver house sales plunge (denverpost.com)
Thu Nov 30 2006 Lien times: A surplus of pricey new houses in Northwest Arkansas has left builders unable to pay their debts (housingzone.com)
Thu Nov 30 2006 Either FL county prices fell 44% or Realtors lied about last year’s prices (naplesnews.com)
Thu Nov 30 2006 NAR’s Anti Bubble Predictions In Sarasota, FL Proven Wrong (bubblemeter.blogspot.com)
Thu Nov 30 2006 Palm Beach housing prices drop 12 percent (palmbeachpost.com)
Thu Nov 30 2006 Debt at record levels but wealth grows even faster (ft.com)
Thu Nov 30 2006 Doomed Chateaux on Central condo project in Phoenix headed to foreclosure. What a shock! (housingpanic.blogspot.com)
Thu Nov 30 2006 Another housing view from Pimco (ocregister.com)
Thu Nov 30 2006 World’s biggest plumbing and heating supplier to cut 2,000 US jobs due to housing crash (bloomberg.com)  

I know it sounds hard to believe, and certainly it sounds like old Chris has flipped his lid … but the EasyHUD Insider Interview on 29 Nov proved that you can, indeed, do more short sales by helping homeowners stay in their homes. Listen to the interview here!

That statement is based the forebearance strategy. This allows us to help qualifying homeowners aty in their homes even if they are behind. The banks would rather see a loan stay current than to have to foreclose, and by working out a forebearance between the bank and the homeowner everyone wins. The interview gives specific details, but this is the gist of that strategy.

 Oh, did i mention that you get to make money by helping the hmeowner stay in their home AND fill up your pipeline of potential Short Sales for the future?

I just wanted to reward the loyal EasyHUD blog readers - if you read this and send me an email with the subject line “EasyHUD Birthday Surprise” i will give you a very special gift (valued at $1000) … but the email MUST be sent n my birthday - TODAY 29 Nov 2006!!!

Hey fellow foreclosure investors! I am working on something VERY BIG for the EasyHUD community. It will affect every single one of you in a very positive way. It will have an absolute monetary value to each and every one of you. I am NOT trying to sell you something. Any guesses? Post them to the “comments” section below!

According to Business 2.0 (again!), those of us foreclosure investors in Colorado and Florida should be doing everything we can to ramp up our businesses … ‘cuz the dam is starting to break and the flood of foreclosures you have been hearing about is really starting to hit in these 10 cities. I would love to hear from anyone in these markets to corroborate this story. Not that I don’t trust Business 2.0, but no one has a nose fore foreclosures like foreclosure investors! Add your comments below.

I don’t live in Florida anymore, so I am certainly not the best resource for what is happening in the real estate market there. I’ll be honest and tell you that I am guilty of generalizing the whole state as overbought and ready for the correction. But after reading this article about “the Top 10 Cities to Buy Now” (FYI - I DO read other magazines besides Business 2.0), i realized that there are still some places for foreclosures to invest where it is a seller’s market.

IF you aren’t a subscriber to Business 2.0 magazine, then you missed a very interesting article in their November 2006 issue that is all about investing “post-bubble”. Though I owuld encourage you to read the article and consider their suggestions, the real gems were the resources (online & offline) that they listed towards the front of the magazine. Some are more scholarly than I prefer (We Gen X’ers have a short attention span!), but i have included them anyway … Here they are:

1. Irrational Exuberance (2nd Edition) by Robert J Shiller
Originally written during the dotcom boom, this book explains the economic and psychological factors that contribute to the creation of speculative bubbles. This new edition contains additional material on the dynamics of real estate markets.

2. Journal of Real Estate Research
This “peer reviewed” journal publishes empirical research geared toward practical real estate decision-making. The site is FREE and the archives stretch back to 1986.

3. About Real Estate
This site from Torto Wheaton Research offers a free weekly newsletter that covers a variety of real estate subjects ranging from rental trends for single-family homes to the correlation between population growth and demand for new warehouse space.

4. Matrix: Interpreting the Real Estate Economy
Appraiser John Miller’s blog provides clearheaded commentary on the latest real estate trends, economic data, and Web-based tools.

5. Housing Doom Bubble Blog
The title may be a tad pessimistic (but we foreclosure investors love it), but writers Debi Averett and John McLeod provide thoughtful - and sobering - perspective on the potential aftershocks of the housing boom.

These should keep you busy!

- Chris