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Posts Tagged ‘Michelle Higgins’

Listing Inventory Is, Well, Listing

February 12, 2013 | 2:38 pm | | Charts |


[click to open article]

I’ve been talking a lot about the causes of falling inventory lately and some mortgage industry types seem to resistant to the idea that credit is keeping supply off the market, versus some sort of uniform national paralysis or sales surge (sales arent’ rising nearly as fast as inventory is falling).

Michelle Higgins at New York Times does a nice feature piece: Dear Owner: Please Sell: Faced With Apartment Shortage, Brokers Get Creative on how this shortage of inventory is changing the way brokers work to get inventory to sell.

But seriously, you’ve got to love the chart (at top) in the article – we provided ten year’s worth of monthly inventory trends to show the visual of just how low inventory has fallen. What’s amazing is the drop is happening in virtually every housing market I can think of.

Since credit is a national market and housing is local, I view this phenomenon as a byproduct of tight credit.

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[NYT] Donut Housing Market Economics Rebranded As “Hard to Trade-up” Market

December 26, 2012 | 2:06 pm | | Charts |

Back from a short self-imposed overwhelmed-with-year-end-deadline-work-blogging-hiatus. Hope everyone had a nice holiday.

So I’m a bit late but the donuts are still fresh…

Michelle Higgins at the New York Times wrote a great piece weekend before last on the current stratification of the housing market that I call a “donut.” Strong on bottom, strong on top and weak in the middle. Mortgage rates are pulling in first time buyers at entry-level and high end is being driven high net worth and international buyers, leaving a weaker middle. The NYT editors weren’t very excited about my “donut” analogy even when I suggested a more New York City-ish bagel or bialy. However the piece correctly focused on the challenges the “trading-up” market in today’s houisng market.

I had lunch with my friend Barry Ritholtz last week and he didn’t like my donut analogy saying it should have been a “barbell” – but seriously, can you put icing or frosting on a barbell? I thought so.

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[On A1, 5 & Dime] New York Times Cover Story On Woolworth Condo Conversion

August 8, 2012 | 11:12 am | | Public |

A real estate article by Michelle Higgins on the Woolworth Building Condo Conversion: Luxury Living in Old Temple of the 5 and Dime made the cover of the New York Times today.

Not to wear out the use of irony here but the very idea that multi-million dollar homes will be located in the crowned jewel of nickel and dime retail sales is a bit mind boggling in retrospect.

Our company got a nice mention for the Manhattan zip code data we have been been tracking for the NYT for years. They’ve got a nice interface to slice and dice the data.

This is our 10th mention on A1 (I’m a numbers guy so I count everything) and I can assure you it never gets old.

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