The 5 Kinds of People Who Attend Open Houses

When I was in China last year there were certainly visible signs of a real estate bubble, and there’s tons of reporting to back that up. But I also continue to be somewhat confused by the concept of such a bubble in a country like China that continues to feature hundreds of millions of people living in plainly substandard housing.

A real-estate agent keeps her own home on the market an average of ten days longer [than she would for a client] and sells it for an extra 3-plus percent, or $10,000 on a $300,000 house. When she sells her own house, an agent holds out for the best offer; when she sells yours, she encourages you to take the first decent offer that comes along. (more)

Bruce Vanderveen submits:The prop wash from Ben Bernanke's helicopters has yet to spread dollars on the struggling U.S. real estate market. Gold, though, up over 30% in the last year, is a major beneficiary,

From the Arizona Republic:"Home prices are surging in metro Phoenix, climbing 8 percent in March alone and 20 percent in the past 12 months. The median price of a house in the region climbed to $134,900, according to a new report from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.

Amid the market downturn, the public is welcome to see some properties listed for more than $10 million. For Florence Mattar, each open house has a routine. She drives around the neighborhood placing signs, brings in fresh flowers, stocks the refrigerator with bottled water and sets out a sign-in sheet. ¶ Similar scenes play out across Southern California every weekend, with one expensive exception.

Long before the current prime minister of Canada arrived in the nation’s capital, ‘The Real’ Stephen Harper was already there, selling houses. About to mark his 27th year in office —a RE/MAX office, that is — Ottawa real estate agent Stephen Harper is now very much used to the long pauses on the end of the phone when he says his name, and the double takes when people meet him in person. Alas, there are big perks to sharing the name of the most powerful man in Ottawa, but also drawbacks, the 52-year-old told the Post’s Sarah Boesveld this week:

Cullen Roche submits: Interesting comments here from an article in The Economist this past week. They touch on the relative value of real estate vs equities: