There’s always something to howl about.

Thoughts And Observations

Jay Thompson hit a two iron to pin high today when he correctly said Greg Swann and Brian Brady won Majors with their many posts on the latest Zillow announcements. It wasn’t even close. Those two would have been hounding the 19th hole’s ATM for cash because they both had a couple holes in one. Their reporting and opinion pieces were not only astoundingly good, but apparently wildly popular too. They get this year’s first Bawldy awards.

Inman has the first part of a four part series reporting on the subprime to-do. It’s a read well worth your visit. Here’s an excerpt:

Although statistics are hard to come by, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that some lenders are working with borrowers to avoid foreclosure.

Captain Obvious predicted this long ago. Of course, since he’s the leader of the Duh! Brigade, nobody is surprised, right? I guess this might mean lenders don’t want a whole bunch of this goo on their books. Who woulda guessed?

John Lockwood had some solid and absolutely empirical evidence about how the real estate bubble is floating these days — at least in Sacramento. Some of the comments seem to say other places are experiencing similar numbers. Read this post. You won’t be sorry.

There’s an interview of yours truly at another blog. It’s not a real estate oriented blog, but one where bloggers are often interviewed. The decision was made to ask me one question a day this week. Every now and then I’m asked for an interview, which is a relatively new experience for me. I’m told an interview I gave to a new ezine targeting baby boomers looking to retire will be published around June or so.

At this point in the year I’m going to break out the famous and very cracked crystal ball. Those who invest in the correct regions this year, and there are more than a few, will be very happy campers on New Year’s Eve next year. There are simply too many things happening — and are staying under the radar. Things like new job growth, continued migration to the previously mentioned correct regions, and behavioral changes in moderate to large investors. What does that last one mean? It means they’re quietly buying in all the right places — and buying a ton.

The only thing that’s bothered me lately is learning I now must head out to a couple more regions. The Southwest folks already call me BawldGuy as it is. At least winter’s pretty much over, and the whole spring-summer weather patterns will make trips more enjoyable.

Since I know you’re all interested — the Padres have won their first two series. Their last two wins have been of the walk-off variety which is always cool. Now, when are they going to Denver? Road trip!