This site is about the overreaching political power of the NC Association of Realtors flush with money from cashing in your equity 6% at a time, leaving you to pay for growth with property taxes, year after year, with or without cash flow. In the last few years NCAR has pumped millions of dollars into NC political campaigns at the state and local level. They have spent millions more to defeat Local Options for Local Governments with misleading ads.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

NCAR Membership Continues Decline

Membership in the North Carolina Association of Realtors (NCAR) declined further in 2008 having peaked in 2007, according to data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The current membership roll of 41,044 as of 11/30/2008 is 5.8% below the enrollment of 43,569 at the same time last year, a loss of 2,525 members, and is below the 2007 year end total of 43,342 members. This is consistent with a national decline in NAR membership which saw an average drop of 9.24% from 1,357,993 members to 1,232,521, a loss of 125,472 members since 11/30/2007.

Membership in NAR peaked in October 2006 at 1,370,758. The only three territories that saw an increase in membership since 11/30/2007 were South Dakota (+7 members), North Dakota (+28) and Guam (+21). The rate of growth in NCAR membership peaked in 2006 at 17% slowing to 5% in 2007 before turning negative for the first time in about 15 years.  NCAR's membership decline of 5.8% still outperforms neighboring states: Virginia membership declined 11.43%, Tennessee 8.94%, South Carolina 9.3%, Georgia 14.22% and Florida membership declined 13.25% since 11/30/2007.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Alt-A and Option ARM Meltdown Coming

A Second Mortgage Disaster On The Horizon?
A Sixty Minutes story explains that the housing bubble is not finished bursting by a long shot.

As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, it turns out the abyss is deeper than most people think because there is a second mortgage shock heading for the economy. In the executive suites of Wall Street and Washington, you're beginning to hear alarm about a new wave of mortgages with strange names that are about to become all too familiar. If you thought sub-primes were insanely reckless wait until you hear what's coming.
Learn how Alt-A and Option ARM mortgage defaults are leading a second wave of foreclosures.