02.03.2010
Articles
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Builder Magazine recently presented their annual list of the top 20 real estate markets expected to see recovery and prospectively, a healthy year. Economist’s for Builder Magazine stated that the markets that benefit first will be the ones with the strongest core dynamics; places where house prices never got out of hand, cities where a [...]
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11.02.2010
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Given the state of housing, it seems like builders wouldn’t start a home without a signed buyer. But that is exactly what they’re doing: They’re ramping up speculative construction to attract last-minute home buyers who want to tap the soon-to-expire tax credit.
As I write in today’s Journal, it is filled with risk, a move that [...]
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11.02.2010
Articles, Economy
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Home prices recovered in more than a third of U.S. metropolitan areas in the fourth quarter, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.The median price for single-family home resales was up from a year earlier in 67 of the 151 U.S. metropolitan areas included in the trade group’s quarterly survey. The Realtors pointed to “a [...]
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10.02.2010
Articles, Economy
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Dubai is reportedly preparing to sell a host of assets, including one of the world’s best known cruise ships, as the emirate’s investment arm looks to restructure a mountain of debt.
The Queen Elizabeth II, or QE2, is rumored to be one of the assets that Dubai’s state-run private equity firm, Istithmar World, is planning to [...]
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09.02.2010
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(Bingo. Great article – good perspective… bc)
Say you’re Apple. It’s a few years ago. You make and sell computers.You see the rise of web apps, and you notice people talking about how desktop apps are done. Desktop apps are done because, with web apps, people can login from anywhere, any machine, and get to their [...]
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05.02.2010
Articles, Economy
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Mortgages are dangerous toys.The statement itself is ludicrous. Mortgages should be neither dangerous nor toys.But let’s not fool ourselves. That’s what they became in the infantile hands of some banking underwriters and real estate speculators. They cut corners to earn quick-and-easy profits.We used to call that simple greed.So what to make of the attempt to [...]
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28.01.2010
Articles, Economy
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In June, 40-year-old Shane Dawley and his 36-year-old wife, Rhonda, uprooted themselves and their four boys from their suburban Atlanta rental home and bought an old five-acre farm in Ogdensburg, Wisc. Their goal: Flee the rat race and adopt a more self-reliant lifestyle amid the troubled economy.
While Mr. Dawley, who had worked at a parking [...]
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28.01.2010
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(I had to smile when I ran across this article… We’ve been using this for years. Scarcity and urgency…. bc)
In our discussion about marketing strategies this week, we’ve already covered cause marketing and relationship marketing. Today, we’re focusing on scarcity marketing.What is Scarcity Marketing?Scarcity marketing involves motivating people to buy something by telling [...]
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28.01.2010
Articles, Economy
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Home prices have posted six months of gains, according to the Case-Shiller home price index, released this morning. But some housing bears say that the fundamentals don’t support those price gains and that, even once the market finds a bottom, home prices aren’t likely to show significant appreciation for many years to come.
Housing economist Dean [...]
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26.01.2010
Articles, BAD marketing :(, Economy
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(WOW… that’s all I can think of to say. Seriously? Drop resort from the name…? I would think the people for whom that would be a problem – would be the very people who more than likely wouldn’t go to a resort. It is after all… a …resort. A place to escape. To relax. We’ve [...]
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