Matrix Blog

It’s time to share my Three Cents Worth (3CW) on Curbed Miami, at the intersection of neighborhood and real estate in the Magic City. And I’m taking notes on the beach.

Check out my 3CW column on @CurbedMiami:

As we make our way through the second quarter (more than halfway!), I took a look at some trends extracted from the first quarter reports we prepare for Douglas Elliman. I went all out and created a four charter that addresses a number of issues born out of the financial crisis that still touch the current market..

[click to expand chart]

My latest Three Cents Worth column: Three Cents Worth: Miami Drill Down: Picking Up the Scraps of the Financial Crisis [Curbed]

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed NY

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed DC

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed Miami

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed Hamptons

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed LA

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed Ski

Tags: Three Cents Worth, Curbed Miami, 3CW, financial crisis

Comments Off on [Three Cents Worth #284 Miami] Miami Drill Down: Picking Up the Scraps of the Financial Crisis

It’s time to share my Three Cents Worth (3CW) on Curbed LA, texting at the intersection of neighborhood and real estate, just off the freeway.

Check out my 3CW column on @CurbedLA:

Since Los Angeles is all about relationships and you don’t know me (yet), I thought I’d better get started on my first Three Cents Worth Column for Curbed LA. I’ve been compiling and analyzing data for Douglas Elliman’s market report series for more than 20 years and one thing I’ve learned: there is nothing better than a good chart. For this column I thought I’d explore the relationship between days on market and listing discount and how that is changing…

[click to expand chart]

My latest Three Cents Worth column: Three Cents Worth: How Much Does It End Up Costing When a House Lingers on the Market in Los Angeles? [Curbed]

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed NY

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed DC

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed Miami

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed Hamptons

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed LA

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed Ski

Tags: Three Cents Worth, Listing Discount, 3CW, Curbed LA, days on market

Comments Off on [Three Cents Worth #283 LA] How Much Does It End Up Costing When a House Lingers on the Market in Los Angeles?

It’s time to share my Three Cents Worth (3CW) on Curbed NY, at the intersection of neighborhood and real estate in the capital of the world…and I’m here to take measurements.

Check out my 3CW column on @CurbedNY:

Since both the sale and rental markets in New York City continue to plot a parallel course—and that’s upward—I thought I’d break down both markets by the number of bedrooms and see how they compare. Turns out the mismatch is quite pronounced at the extremes of each market…

[click to expand chart]

My latest Three Cents Worth column: Three Cents Worth: Renters Love Small Apartments; Buyers Are Relegated To Them [Curbed]

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed NY

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed DC

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed Miami

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed Hamptons

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed LA

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed Ski

Tags: Three Cents Worth, Curbed NY, 3CW

Comments Off on [Three Cents Worth #282 NY] Renters Love Small Apartments; Buyers Are Relegated To Them

Read my latest Bloomberg View column A Housing Recovery Built to Last?.

Here’s an excerpt…

The housing market has recovered in fits and starts since the financial crisis, so it’s worth noting when one important indicator looks really strong. This is the case with the pending home sales index, which reflects contracts signed for purchases of single-family homes, co-ops and condos, published by the National Association of Realtors…

[read more]

My Bloomberg View Column Directory

My Bloomberg View RSS feed.

Tags: Housing Recovery, PHSI, Seasonal Adjustment, Pending Home Sale Index, NAR, National Association of Realtors

Comments Off on Bloomberg View Column: A Housing Recovery Built to Last?

It’s time to share my Three Cents Worth (3CW) on Curbed NY, at the intersection of neighborhood and real estate in the capital of the world…and I’m here to take measurements.

Check out my 3CW column on @CurbedNY:

After covering more serious topics as of late, this week I thought I’d lighten things up and look at New York city’s signed contracts by day of the week. I used the roughly 2,000 contract dates I had for the closed sales in Q1 of 2015, as used in the Elliman Report for that time period, and parsed out the market by day of the week. Strategically, there is probably nothing to be learned from this exercise, but hey, it’s an angle I’ve never examined before…

[click to expand chart]

My latest Three Cents Worth column on Curbed: Three Cents Worth: 6 Graphs That Prove New York Real Estate’s Love of Mondays [Curbed]

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed NY
Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed DC
Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed Miami
Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed Hamptons

Tags: Three Cents Worth, Curbed NY, Contracts, 3CW, Mondays

Comments Off on [Three Cents Worth #281 NY] 6 Graphs That Prove New York Real Estate’s Love of Mondays

Read my latest Bloomberg View column Invest in a Painting, Not a Condo.

Here’s an excerpt…

A couple of weeks ago, Laurence Fink, the chief executive officer of BlackRock Inc., observed that “the two greatest stores of wealth internationally today is contemporary art … and apartments in Manhattan, apartments in Vancouver, in London”…

[read more]

My Bloomberg View Column Directory

My Bloomberg View RSS feed.

Tags: Art, painting, Knight Frank Investment Index, cars, Dow Jones Industrial Average, gold, Miller Samuel

Comments Off on Bloomberg View Column: Invest in a Painting, Not a Condo

It’s time to share my Three Cents Worth (3CW) on Curbed NY, at the intersection of neighborhood and real estate in the capital of the world…and I’m here to take measurements.

Check out my 3CW column on @CurbedNY:

A lot of time and energy has been spent writing about one of the biggest challenges to the New York City housing market in recent years: affordability. One of the primary observations of the purchase market has been the lower number of first time buyers, both locally and nationally. Tight credit, slow household formation, and a creaky economy have been a root cause of keeping their participation muted, but it’s also the disproportionately higher price growth over the long term for smaller apartments. Here’s my attempt to illustrate this trend, using data from the last 25 years…

[click to expand chart]

My latest Three Cents Worth column on Curbed: Three Cents Worth: Smaller Manhattan Apartments Keep Getting More Expensive [Curbed]

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed NY
Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed DC
Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed Miami
Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed Hamptons

Tags: Three Cents Worth, Curbed NY, Listing Inventory, entry-level, trade up

Comments Off on [Three Cents Worth #280 NY] Smaller Manhattan Apartments Keep Getting More Expensive

It’s time to share my Three Cents Worth (3CW) on Curbed NY, at the intersection of neighborhood and real estate in the capital of the world…and I’m here to take measurements.

Check out my 3CW column on @CurbedNY:

Now that I am fully recovered from Micro Week, I thought I would think a little bigger and present the Manhattan inventory picture by comparing new development and re-sales. I’ve charted it from the pre-Lehman high (PLH for those in the know) through the end of 2014 in two graphs. One shows the year-over-year change, and the other tracks inventory by units to help tell the whole story. Inventory was in a state of free fall for both types from 2009 through 2013, but in 2014 the picture clearly changed…

[click to expand chart]

My latest Three Cents Worth column on Curbed: Three Cents Worth: New York’s Building Boom Doesn’t Mean More Units For Sale [Curbed]

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed NY
Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed DC
Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed Miami
Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed Hamptons

Tags: Three Cents Worth, Curbed NY, Listing Inventory

Comments Off on [Three Cents Worth #279 NY] New York’s Building Boom Doesn’t Mean More Units For Sale

Read my latest Bloomberg View column Want a New House? Good Luck.

Here’s an excerpt…

Much of the analysis of the housing market focuses on sales volume and price trends. These are important metrics, of course, but they really don’t tell you much about market fundamentals because they are, to a great extent, derivative…

[read more]

My Bloomberg View Column Directory

My Bloomberg View RSS feed.

Tags: Listing Inventory, credit crunch, NAR, National Association of Realtors

Comments Off on Bloomberg View Column: Want a New House? Good Luck

Read my latest Bloomberg View column House Rich, Land Poor.

Here’s an excerpt…

The living space in newly built U.S. homes is on a tear: Since 1982, the size of a new single-family house has increased by almost 1,000 square feet — which was the size of the average U.S. house in 1950…

[read more]

The trend continued after a brief interruption during the early days of the financial crisis…

My Bloomberg View Column Directory

My Bloomberg View RSS feed.

Tags: New Home Sales, Square Footage, Average Square Feet, U.S. Census, land, lot size

Comments Off on Bloomberg View Column: House Rich, Land Poor

Read my latest Bloomberg View column The Bidding Wars Are Back.

Hard to believe this is happening again…

Here’s an excerpt…

A relic from the days of the housing boom is making a comeback. The share of sales that feature bidding wars is up. According to the National Association of Realtors, 33 percent of all sales were at or above the asking price, a strong indication that more than one bidder was involved in a transaction…

[read more]

My Bloomberg View Column Directory

My Bloomberg View RSS feed.

Tags: Listing Inventory, bidding wars, NAR, National Association of Realtors

Comments Off on Bloomberg View Column: The Bidding Wars Are Back

Read my latest Bloomberg View column Income Inequality Hits the Housing Market.

This article turned out to be my most-commented on piece so far. The topic of affordability generates a hotbed of conversation.

Here’s an excerpt…

There’s been plenty of talk recently about signs of recovery in the housing market. Rather than think about housing as a single market, it might be helpful to look at housing as many markets based on everything from geography to price to new versus existing…

[read more]

My Bloomberg View Column Directory

My Bloomberg View RSS feed.

Tags: New Home Sales, U.S. Census

1 Comment