Business Pundit

Image: Extended Stay Hotels The AP this morning reported that Extended Stay Hotels, LLC, owned by the Lightstone Group (one of the nation’s biggest private real estate companies), filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today. Extended Stay… Read more

The Highland Park, Chicago home featured in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (1986) is being listed by Sotheby’s for $2.3 million. The Chicago Sun-Times has more: The Ben Rose Home, set for Cameron Frye’s house and the infamous Ferrari scene in… Read more

The plummeting number on my retirement account statements is a monthly reminder of a back burner dream of mine: real estate investment. This economy seems the perfect time to pick up a few good deals at a fantastic rate. But when is the right… Read more

Victoria Gotti, the Gambino family daughter best known for her reality TV series “Growing Up Gotti,” is facing foreclosure on her $3.2-million Long Island estate. From the New York Post: (JP Morgan Chase) has been given the go-ahead to… Read more

People don’t like purchasing empty homes. At least according to home staging companies, which are now hiring temporary residents to create an occupied atmosphere to lure in potential buyers. The Wall Street Journal reports: Home “staging”… Read more

Commercial property developer General Growth Properties Inc. filed for bankruptcy today. Bloomberg has more: General Growth Properties Inc. filed the biggest real estate bankruptcy in U.S. history after amassing $27 billion in debt during an… Read more

According to RealtyTrac, a whopping one in 54 homes received a foreclosure notice last year. That’s 3.1 million foreclosure filings. Scared yet? An ever-increasing pool of foreclosure rescue scammers are drooling at the prospect of capitalizing… Read more

New home sales increased 4.7% this month, an encouraging indicator in an oversupplied real estate market. The Wall Street Journal reports: WASHINGTON — New-home sales climbed for the first time in seven months during February, another… Read more

Here’s a handy Wall Street Journal bit on short sales vs. foreclosures: Although a short sale, where the lender agrees to take less than owed on the mortgage, will drop your FICO score as much as a foreclosure will, there is one advantage to it:… Read more

The new Obama housing plan, announced today, will help homeowners refinance loans and lower monthly payments. Bloomberg reports: U.S. President Barack Obama pledged $275 billion to a program that includes cutting mortgage payments for as many as… Read more

Homeowners know that mortgage interest provides a valuable tax deduction, but this year the IRS has sweetened the pot for first time home buyers. The First-Time Homebuyer Credit provides incentive for those who haven’t owned a home in the past… Read more

How does a 3.5% down payment on a house with a 3.99% fixed-rate mortgage sound? This kind of thing was unheard of a year ago, but now East Coast builder Toll Brothers is offering buyers a tintillating deal. The Wall Street Journal’s Dawn Wotapka… Read more

It’s always a good market for somebody. From the Financial Times: Chinese bargain hunters are preparing to descend on American cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, where homeowners have suffered some of the steepest price falls in… Read more

Print media has been crumbling for a while, but a few recent events appear to have triggered a tipping point. The LA Times, Time Warner, Gannett, the Tribune Company and others have axed significant numbers of staff. A steaming heap of money-wasting… Read more