Itz News to Me

For all the scorn and blame that has been heaped on mortgage brokers during the last year, realtors have surprisingly escaped getting their fair share of the blame for the recent unrealistic run-up in real estate prices. I have long contended that they, in fact, are the number one reason that prices ran up as far and as fast as they did. Now they want to put the blame on lenders and brokers and the buyers, but never nor at any time on the real estate agents who are still spending every minute of every hour trying to convince people that *NOW* is the time to buy a house.

Forget the fact that they know prices are declining and will likely continue to do so over the next couple of years. Forget the fact that they know their buyers can’t afford the house they’re showing them. Forget the fact that even in a tough market that they’re unwilling to reduce their commission rates. And that’s where we come to the reason for today’s rant: the monopolistic behavior of the NAR.

You would think that the same market forces which affect most other markets in this country would affect real estate as well, but you would be wrong. Because of the near-monopoly that the NAR and its members exercise over the listing services, those who might compete with them are effectively shut out of the market. They have to pay higher prices for access to the listings, if they’re allowed access at all. Now, a light may be breaking into the darkness, as the NAR has been forced into a settlement with the Department of Justice to allow internet-based agencies to have fair access to those listings.

Given their history of manipulative behavior, I would bet that they’re still going to have to be dragged kicking and screaming into compliance with the agreement over and over again. But it’s a start. Once we can break the NAR strangehold on real estate, we might once again see some rationality in the marketplace.

Popularity: 7%

In just the latest round of Democratic hypocrisy, the state of Maryland (my home sweet home) thinks that everyone deserves to get paid a “living wage,” unless of course that somebody happens to work for the state of Maryland.

For those of you not privileged to live in this fine state, it is literally infested with Democrats from the local level all the way up to our governor and congressional delegation. If you want to find Republicans here, you have to go west in the “skinny” part of the state: but the population of Baltimore and the DC suburbs is so much larger that it is practically inconsequential. In recent years, Maryland has become more and more nanny state-ish, and this is going to be the end result: the only ones who will be able to afford doing business in this state will be the government. By creating special rules for itself while over-regulating and taxing everybody else to death, the Democrats are creating a creeping de facto socialist state.

This is what a liberal future looks like: is this what you really want?

Popularity: 14%