bLoG UnDeR CoNsTrUcTiOn.......
Please excuse the mess on our Blog... we are currently experiencing some problems with blogger, and have finally decided to throw in the towel and redesign from the ground up using a completely different platform.
But don't fret because will still be posting over the next week or two until things get straightened out. You can always subscribe with our feedburner account:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/hismove The feedburner feed will stay the same even through our transition, so that is probably the best one to use as our RSS feed is totally haywire at the moment.
Thank you for your patience.
2006 3rd Quarter NAR Report Shows National Home Sales Falling
In an
article and
press release just put out by the
NAR, statistics confirm a turn around in the market. In other words, this report simply confirmed what everyone knew already... that we have transitioned into a buyer's market.
Here are some National statistics from the article:
- Total Home Sales are down 12.7%
- Median sales price for single family homes are down 1.2%
The NAR's chief economist had this to say:
"David Lereah, NAR’s chief economist, said market conditions are nearly the opposite of a year ago. “Last year we had a record sales market and historically tight supplies of homes with buyers bidding over the asking price,” he said. “With the market in full transition, buyers now have choices and sellers are more willing to negotiate – under these circumstances it’s no surprise that overall home prices are slightly below a year ago. We expect this trend to continue in the months ahead, but we’ll see modest appreciation in most of the country in 2007.”
District Court Rules: Craigslist.com is Not in Violation of Fair Housing
Craigslist.com was recently sued by a Committee of lawyers in Chicago for alleged discrimination and violation of the fair housing act.
Here is a quote from
Inman news:
"The online classified service Craigslist.org is not a publisher and can't be forced to stop its users from posting alleged discriminatory housing advertisements, a U.S. District Court Judge has ruled.
The ruling is the latest of several in which courts have held that Web sites that serve as intermediaries to allow users to post ads or commentary enjoy protections under the Communications Decency Act not afforded to print publications such as newspapers."
The article goes on to talk about the official view of HUD on the subject:
"Some Web sites assert that they are exempt from liability under (the Fair Housing Act) because of a provision in the Communications Decency Act which limits the liability of interactive computer services for content originating with a third party user of the service," wrote Bryan Greene, HUD's deputy assistant secretary for enforcement and programs. "However, HUD has concluded that the (Communications Decency Act) does not make Web sites immune from liability under the Fair Housing Act or from liability under state and local laws that HUD has certified as substantially equivalent to the Fair Housing Act."
This is an interesting battle, and I'm sure that we will see many more lawsuits of this kind in the coming months and years. Another official statement by HUD encouraged similar investigations into alleged acts of violations on websites with 3rd party information similar to craigslist, and instructed it's regional directors, to pay close attention to such alleged violations.
Finally... a Feed That Works
For all of our subscribers frustrated with our RSS feed situation... you need not fret any longer.
We have finally consolidated all of our feeds into one easy to use
Feedburner account.
Here is the link to the feedSo, if you were subscribed to our RSS or Atom feed through a news reader like
Bloglines, this feed will no longer be active, and you will need to re-subscribe with the new feed.
We have also added the ability to subscribe via email. Just complete the form on the right, and you will be emailed when we post something new.
P.S. - If you haven't upgraded your browser to
Firefox 2 yet, you need to get on the
bandwagon. The updated RSS support and new features are awesome!
TomatoBlogs.com: A New Angle on the Business Blog
I was impressed earlier today when I noticed the launch of
TomatoBlogs.com I have been a fan of
Jim Cronin's Real Estate Tomato Blog since it began earlier this year. He is definitely on my
top reading list. Probably in the top 5 blogs that I read everyday.
Anyways... he has begun a service that creates custom business blogs. This is obviously not a new idea, but one thing that intrigued me about the service is that it comes with 12 weeks of classes that essentially teach you how to blog effectively. Here is an excerpt from the site:
"Training includes:Blogging 101 and website management
Elegant and effective writing styles
Participation and syndication
Search engine and traffic statistic analysis"
