Home Sales Softening
Washington: As has been predicted for months, national sales of existing homes are in a
slow, downward glide and it now appears that about 5.13 million homes will be
sold this year. That's still a national record.
Economists say interest rates that continue to hover around 7.8 percent, up
from 6.7 percent a year ago, are a key factor in the slowdown. But they also
point to the normal drop off in the fall season as consumers become
preoccupied with the upcoming holidays.
Says Jim Smith, economist for the National Association of REALTORS@reg;, "Consumer
demand for existing homes is still healthy despite several months of
increased interest rates. The housing market will not be derailed because
economic factors that drive consumer confidence -- employment, inflation and
household wealth - are at healthy levels."
Champion of Historic Homes Dies
Washington: In one of his last acts before his untimely death, Rhode Island Sen. John
Chafee championed the cause of helping people who live in historic districts
pay for the restoration of their homes.
Chafee died in late October. The week before his death he urged his Senate
colleagues to pass a measure that would cover up to 20 percent of the
restoration cost of historic homes with either a reduction in the homeowner's
income tax or with a credit certificate applied to the homeowner's mortgage.
Chafee said similar deductions for businesses that restore old buildings
already have saved more than $18 billion.
Emphasized Chafee, "These provisions would be attractive to low and middle
income homeowners, not just those in the top tax brackets."
Regulators Hope To Clamp Down on Real Estate Boiler Rooms
Savannah, Ga.: America's real estate regulators gathered in the Old South last month to
discuss a new and serious high-tech problem - so-called "boiler-room"
operations on the Internet that are skimming untold dollars off real estate
deals while barely offering consumers a phone call's worth of service.
What the real estate commissioners are worried about are Web sites that give
appearance of being based in a particular city or state, but actually are in
a different part of the country - or may even be located outside the United
States.
Invariably, the pirate sites are not licensed in the communities they pretend to represent but are indistinguishable from legitimate Web sites. Consumers who contact the sites actually are dealing with a boiler-room somewhere that
does nothing more than refer the consumer to an agent back in the hometown -
extracting a high "referral fee" from the agent in the process.
Commissioners are worried that the pirate sites operate outside of state laws and are virtually impossible to track down should something go wrong. The state officials will be asking their legislatures for new laws to regulate real estate Web sites.
Published: November 1, 1999
Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.
