CommentLuv by FiddyP, stockmarket update 9-21-07, housing bust inventories rising

Posted on Sep 21, 2007 by CHESSNOID in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Good morning. Today is the day for 50% chance of rain. I watched the news this morning and confirmed there is a storm front off the coast. Hopefully, I will be back home from work before the rain begins.

Recently, I was reading Andy’s blog FiddyP . He has a bunch of great posts and is full of IT wizardry. As you know, my blog is on wordpress and Andy had this awesome plugin called CommentLuv. In his article, it states:

Comments are a wonderful thing to receive on your blog, adding the dofollow plugin is one way to reward but why not place a link to their last post under their comment, with CommentLuv, you can do that automatically!

example:

The CommentLuv Wordpress Plugin will visit the feed of the comment author and attempt to scrape the last post they made and display it under their comment, this way you can encourage people to join in the discussion of your posts and give something back straight away.

I think it is very cool that the commenter is able to get a link back to his last post. Andy gives a solid technical explanation of how it works and you can read more about it at his site FiddyP. I have already installed it, so comment and see some commentluv. I do believe the more you comment, the more it will help your blog reactions on your technorati rating. I am not a 100% on this so give it a try and let me know.

The market indexes are all up with continued momentum from the federal reserve rate cuts. I really hope this helps the economy long term, but still think the housing bust has yet to make its full effect felt. I continue to peruse craigslist and redfin for good deals on condos and see many out there at good prices. However, the momentum is still there and you can see it by the increased number of posts. Another place I gauge the housing market is checking out Countrywides Foreclosures blog. He has a chart showing current inventories. As of 9/12/07, the inventory for just this one mortgage company is 12,154 homes with a total asking price of $2,579,725,796.00.

I am not sure how it is everywhere around the world, but I did read there was a run on a deposits because of bad mortgages in the UK. That reminds me of the US depression when savers all tried to pull there money out at the same time. This housing hurt isn’t just in the US. It would be nice to hear what real estate is like in you country. One problem we are experiencing here in California is th extremely high prices the houses have shot up. Just less than a year ago, the average price of a home in California was $500,000 and it didn’t matter how ugly the house looked.

DOW	13,853.68	+86.98
NASDAQ	2,675.71	+21.42
S&P 500	1,528.97	+10.22

4 Comments

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YC, September 21, 2007:

Actually in my country Singapore, I would think our housing market will buck this trend in the US and UK. Prices are still climbing despite the global situation, due in part to the supposed thriving economy here and also the fact that we will be completing 2 Integrated Resorts (something like a Las Vegas strip with casinos, hotels, entertainment complexes etc) in a few years’ time. The government is also aggressively courting foreign investment and the hospitality and tourism industries could be a hotbed in due time. Land is also scarce due to the fact that we are just a dot on the world map. Housing rental prices are simply getting quite ridiculous here.

YC’s last blog post..3 Great Prizes From John Cow Contest
CHESSNOID, September 21, 2007:

Hi YC,
I have seen videos and pictures of Singapore. It looks like a very busy and crowded place like New York City. How much does it cost to buy a house or rent an apartment there?
Las Vegas is still a thriving economy but the real estate there has also been hurt. It doesn’t seem to be affecting the gaming part but houses and condos are going for cheap compared to 2 years ago.
YC, September 23, 2007:

That’s a very very interesting thing you mentioned about real estate in Vegas! Is the price drop related to the current situation in the States overall?

I am not sure about buying property here but in general getting a condominium unit easily cost you over a million SG now unless it’s in a less popular neighbourhood (which aren’t that many since Singapore is really small). That works out to about US$670,000. Rental prices are generally over S$1,500/mth for a 2 room condo unit (~US$1,000). It might not sound like much but not when you could rent it at much less just 1-2 yrs ago.

YC’s last blog post..An Extreme Weekend
CHESSNOID, September 23, 2007:

Hi YC,
The prices seem high there for purchase but relatively cheap for a rental.
Well, my guess on Las Vegas is that tourism and gambling will always thrive in both a good and bad economy. The real estate market is more of a whole nation situation born from speculators/investors flipping houses and driving prices up artificially without real demand from buyers coupled with new loan products that basically blow up after 2 years. You can buy a house now in Las Vegas for as low as $200,000 and have monthly payments of less than $1500 with the current interest rates here.