Clamping down on bidding wars, probing the secrets of successful buyers and sellers, and much, much more
That's a list of coming attractions on this blog, ideas that flowed out of the first ever Boston Real Estate Now housing confab last night.
A small group of BREN bloggers, readers and contributors gathered at the Tavern in the Square in Cambridge's Porter Square to talk about real estate and just life in general.
I came out with lots of great ideas for future posts, including:
* Is it time to put an end to out-of-control bidding wars? Thanks to the just expired tax credit, the ugly phenomenon of bidding wars for modestly priced homes reared its ugly head again. Courtesy of Bill Wendel of the Real Estate Café, maybe it's time to shed some light - and push for some regulation - of this nasty little corner of the real estate world.
* It's also time to start telling the stories of successful buyers and sellers who have managed to navigate the Greater Boston real estate market, after all one of the trickiest in the country. I am all ears if you have a good story - I am also going to start putting calls out to my own contacts. Thanks to James in Cambridge for that suggestion.
* The child care cost surprise is another great topic. There are a lot of clueless parents like me who never really understood the financial implications of putting two or three children in day care. But it's a cost that has to be factored in if you are looking at buying a house and considering starting a family. I had an interesting conversation with Grace on that issue.
* Where was our fearless Bay State Congressional delegation when some key decisions were being taken that set the stage for the real estate bubble? Alan Greenspan has certainly taken a deserved drubbing, but it's also pretty clear Congress help throw fuel on the subprime mortgage boom with some key votes of its own. Let's just say it's high time to take a closer look at the record here.
Thanks to Rona, Sam Schneiderman, Richard Vetstein, John Ford, Grace, Rosemary, James, Sarah, Jennifer and Bill Wendel of the Real Estate Café for turning out.
If you missed this one, don't worry, we will be meeting quarterly now at different taverns and coffee shops around the Boston area.
Just to leave off on a newsy note, check out this latest study on the real estate bubble, set to be released today.
It claims easy credit and low interest rates have wrongly taken center stage as the culprits behind the huge increase in housing prices after 2001.
Now that's not controversial!
