Notes From California State Realtors Meeting

By Don Dunning | October 25, 2008

As a director of the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.), I attend meetings three times a year at various locations throughout the state. This one was held in Long Beach from Oct 14th through Oct 18th with about 1200 in attendance.

Weather was great, but not much time for play. During the four-and-a-half days of meetings there were simultaneous sessions on a variety of topics intended to keep Realtors up-to-date and informed — from new laws to Multiple Listing Service (MLS) issues, from economic forecasts to consumer protection. Many of the topics related to the current foreclosure crunch. Turns out that most of the problems we discussed are more prevalent in southern California and the Central Valley but we could be seeing them in the East Bay.

Will bailout help buyers?

By Don Dunning | September 8, 2008

The funniest blog comment I have read so far about the Federal government bailout of FNMA and Freddie Mac was, “There goes the American peso…I mean dollar.” It will cost each of us taxpayers, but will it help purchasers? Given that conforming interest rates (a loan of up to $417,000 in California) fell about half […]

There are good reasons to sell now

By Don Dunning | July 3, 2008

With negative news about the real estate market and economy cropping up daily, it might appear that no one should sell his home now. On the contrary, despite the doom and gloom, there are some excellent reasons why selling today could make good sense.