Here is some personal opinion from Mike Allen, a founder of HomeProdigy.com, a real estate website in the DFW Metro Area.
There is no shortage to answers to how we can solve the housing problem in the US. Some think it is best to spend our way out of the mess, some simply want to prosecute those that perpetraited the problem in the first place, and some want to do nothing and let the market work it out by itself.
I personally like one answer in particular... let immigration solve the problem (it has been discussed by many, but here is a good synopsis). Of course, I would alter the idea some. I would let any immigrant (who passes national security screening) into the country if they could afford to buy a bank owned, REO, or foreclosed house that cost a minimum of $100,000 in cash. If they can afford this, then they will probably make an excellent addition to our communities and it will solve around 50% of the housing problems.
Looking at our site, I can see that 1,227 out of the 2,527 home in foreclosure listed in the Dallas Fort Worth MLS are above $100,000 (see list of these homes here). I have lived in places like Mexico, Brazil, Spain, England, and even Ney York... and I can tell you that there are foreigners living in all of these places that would love to move to Dallas and have plenty of money, are university educated, and just all around good people. They would jump at the opportunity!
Do you know what the best part of using immigration to solve the housing mess is? It's free to the taxpayers! You heard me... free! In fact, it is better than free since the immigrants are essentially paying us to solve the problem we created (this will be the topic for another day). You might ask, "why would anyone want to pay us to solve our problems?" The answer is obvious if you have ever lived in any of these other places (and don't get me wrong, I loved living there... I would move to many of them again except New York, that one was too foreign for my tastes). Here are the reasons, based upon my experience:
Brazil & Mexico - security. This is a great place to live, but it is up one day, down the next. Safe one year, dangerous the next. I lived there for almost 5 years and loved it. Many Brazilians and Mexicans would move to a place like Dallas because our cost of living is similar to their big cities', but with much better security.
England and Spain - cost of living. These places were a ton of fun, but taxes are high and cost of living is out of control, not to mention no good TexMex food (who can live without fajitas?!?!).
When I stop to think about it... immigration seems like the most sanguine solution to the housing mess in the US. Hope I am saying ola, oi, hola, or cheers to some new neighbors soon!
News Release: HomeProdigy released an update to its code base today.
You said you wanted faster, better home search... so, HomeProdigy delivered!
Included in the release was:
* enhanced performance on Internet Explorer 7 and 8. It is truly a marvel now for all of our users. Historically, it only ran well on FireFox, Chrome, Safari, etc... everyone except Microsoft's Software. But, we did not want to deny anyone within reason from the pleasure of using our interactive map.
* we turned off the map on IE6, we decided that this is a dying platform that is not capable of supporting our most advanced features like the interactive map
* Request a Showing. This is one that several of our users have asked for... an obvious way to ask for an Realtor to show you a listing. When a home shopper contact HomeProdigy via the request a showing feature, then we or one of our pre-approved agents will respond to the home shoppers request asap.
* User Feedback functionality. We want to know what Mr and Mrs Home Buyers and Sellers in Dallas are thinking. Please let us know... the good, the bad, and the ugly.
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HomeProdigy is a residential real estate website dedicated to simplifying and improving how home shoppers educate themselves, find real estate agents, as well as, facilitating how real estate agents attract and retain new customers.
Well, I might be partial to Dallas, but it looks like Austin took the cake in 2008 when it comes to which Texas city held its residentital real estate value the best. On an indexed scale, DFW home prices did well until Q3 of 2008, but hten they took a nose dive (see graph below).
Of course, perspective helps. When you look at Dallas vs cities outside of Texas, then you see how fortunate we have been....
So, while it is true that misery loves company. It is even more true that I am glad that I don't own property outside of Texas!
To preface Davids letter, yesterday was a preview of sorts, in which we were able to talk about and demonstrate our site to agents en mass. Last night I think I speak for all of us when I say that I went home with a feeling of contentment and accomplishment, a few hours later I got this from David which I think tells the story better than I am able:
This is something worth reading, it is a bright light for us all.
Tonight, was a very important night, and Robyn (R) suggested I should write it down. Disclaimer: The agent who called to invite us only called one day in advance so the scene painted below only allowed us about 6 hours to prepare, but the lessons are still beyond value.
Nalin, Michael, and I all attended the DFW Realtors Chile Cook-off to get agents to sign up for our referral process, our most hopeful product at HomeProdigy, and I felt that I must document this critical moment in the history of HomeProdigy.com.
