I have been spending this week in New York City at Real Estate Connect. What I love about this conference is that it is not dominated by real estate industry gurus. Although it includes presenters from within the industry, it includes many from the outside as well…such as technology innovators, economics professors, NY Times reporters, media and marketing specialists, Craig Newmark of 'Craig's List', etc.
Here are some tidbits heard during the conference…
- Hope is up 87.3% in the last 3 months
- It's never as bad as it seems…it's never as good as it seems
- Recovery is likely to be an "L" shape rather than a "V" shape
- Houses have instrinsic value, stocks don't
- Plan to stay in a home you buy now for 5-10 years
- Personal savings rate is spiking for the first time in 23 years
- 50% of people who lose their home to foreclosure never talk to their lender
- The housing market will recover…we have had four down cycles in the last 30 years
- We will see more innovation born of necessity
- Now is the time of housing bargain hunting
- There is pent-up demand buyer and seller demand
Ideas for long-term solutions…
- Create mortgages that would automatically re-adjust based on market conditions, such as automatic write-downs to 90% of value in a declining market
- Home equity insurance
- Every family have a financial advisor, much like a primary care physician
The Internet is changing the world…
- 20% of prime time network viewers last fall watched on devices other than a television
- 10% of Internet traffic is cell phone related
- Internet makes grass roots democracy possible
- 84% of people start their home search online
- Direct access to information makes real estate more transparent, but so much information makes it difficult for consumers to interpret
- Online real estate interest has not diminshed
