Watch CBS Videos Online 60 Minutes had a good segment this Sunday called Your Bank Has Failed: What Happens Next? which was perfect timing because a number of people seem to be worried about their own banks failing. I bank at one of the national firms in the headlines and, while the thought has cros...

We used to ignore bubbles, explaining them away because they were scary. Now we see them as a clearer conduit to clarity when illustrating a point related to mortgages. Not housing. Remember, we experienced a mortgage bubble from 2003-2007, not a housing bubble. Housing was merely a way to keep scor...

The 1999-2008 Manhattan Townhouse Report that I author for Prudential Douglas Elliman was released today. Dottie Herman , the President/CEO of Prudential Douglas Elliman is pushing hard to make information more accessible to the public. Approximately 2,500 Manhattan residential townhouse transaction...

Today I was invited to appear on Fox Business Live with Alexis Glick and Connell McShane. Before we got started, I plugged my Twitter address because Twitter was discussed at length during the prior segment before I came on the set and Connell was hard-selling live blogging, Facebook and Twitter int...

In this crazy economic world, we are probably in dire need of some levity. Erica Ferencik (pronounced “forensic” - certainly one of the most interesting last names around), a former stand-up comedian and active real estate agent working hard in this tough environment, has written her fir...

It was close to 60 degrees in Manhattan yesterday which reminded me I neglected to post Ed Glaeser’s fascinating commentary in the Economix Blog of the New York Times called Revenge of the Rust Belt . It also brought to mind a Steven Wright favorite of mine: It doesn’t matter what temper...

Back in January, David Lereah, former chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, came clean with the Wall Street Journal . It appeared to be more of a timed interview to coincide with the start of his new venture. Mr. Lereah, who says he left NAR voluntarily, says he was pressured by ...

Whatever your political persuasion, it’s hard to deny there is a whole lot more government in our future. It feels like the focus on housing has been lost in the stimulus shuffle, but then again the financial system needs to be “Stimmed” before housing can be repaired. And of cours...

I am a bit taken aback by the army of real estate marketing gurus and top line real estate agents that are openly talking about the weak housing market as part of their public image. It does seem to give the real estate brokerage industry more credibility but I have a hard time processing this new m...

Last week the New York State Comptroller announced that Wall Street bonuses fell 44% to $18.4B and the securities industry losses may exceed $35B Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which infused billions of dollars into the financial system, helped prevent more institutions from failing. TARP pla...