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Former Ask.com CEO joins Move Inc. Premium Content

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Wednesday, January 21, 2009.

W. Michael Long, who in 2002 led a new management team at Realtor.com's parent company in the wake of a financial scandal and management shakeup, has retired from Realtor.com-operator Move.com with the arrival of a new CEO.

Steven H. Berkowitz, the former CEO of search site Ask.com -- which was purchased by InterActiveCorp in 2005 -- is the incoming CEO for Move.com, which operates the most popular U.S. real estate search site.

Berkowitz has served on Move's board of directors since June 2008. Move is formerly known as Homestore. The company rebranded in 2006.  more...

NYC average sales price drops 10%

By Inman News, Wednesday, January 21, 2009.

The Real Estate Board of New York, the largest trade group in New York City, reported today that the average sales price for cooperatives, condominiums and single-family to three-family homes across the five boroughs dipped 10 percent in the fourth quarter compared to the same quarter last year.

The average sales price of New York City apartments -- including co-ops and condos -- dipped 4 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter, while the average price of single-family, two-family and three-family homes dropped 13 percent to $548,000 and the average sales price of co-ops rose 10 percent to $602,000, according to REBNY.  more...

Real estate journalism contest seeks entries

By Inman News, Wednesday, January 21, 2009.

Calling all working journalists who cover real estate, mortgage finance, shelter and home design issues: Feb. 20, 2009, is the deadline to submit work published or aired in 2008 for your chance to win up to $1,500 in the National Association of Real Estate Editors' 59th Annual Journalism Competition.  more...

Who'll stop the rain?

By Bill and Kevin Burnett, Wednesday, January 21, 2009.

Occasionally we get questions that have answers that don't require lots of explanation. When they begin to pile up, we like to clean out our e-mail box. Here are short answers to four unrelated questions.  more...

Countering real estate information overload Premium Content

By Kris Berg, Wednesday, January 21, 2009.
Flickr photo by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/ninjanoodles/3070885645/" target=blank>NightRPStar</a>.

My youngest daughter came to me this week and announced that she has diabetes. She doesn't, of course, but she came to this conclusion after spending an hour searching the Internet for the truth. It seems she has been really thirsty lately, drinking approximately 27 glasses of water a day by her own estimation. Don't worry. She really hasn't, but remember that children deal mostly in abstracts. "Tomorrow" means sometime other than today, "no" means maybe, and "27" means a whole bunch. So, 27 it is.  more...

West Penn MLS agrees to FTC settlement Premium Content

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Wednesday, January 21, 2009.

A Pittsburgh-area multiple listing service has agreed to a proposed settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over charges that the MLS violated antitrust laws in restricting some real estate service contracts.  more...

Fewer reverse mortgage options in '09

By Tom Kelly, Wednesday, January 21, 2009.

Most reverse mortgage options have left the market, victims of the global credit crunch. Yet the biggest player with the longest history still remains, and it pushed the industry into positive growth territory for the 19th straight year.

While the 4.3 percent increase in the number of FHA-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs) was down significantly from previous years, it bettered the negative numbers of conventional, or "forward," loans. The Federal Housing Administration is a component of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and now the main player in the conventional (forward) and reverse mortgage market.  more...