Forums: Real Estate

WASHINGTON, Jan. 11, 2010 – When Staff Sgt. Megan Krause returned home from a deployment in Iraq in 2006, she thought the scariest moments of her life were over. Jill Herzog, of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, comforts Army Staff Sgt. Megan Krause after her speech about her battle with post-traumatic stress disorder. Krause spoke during the 2010 Suicide Prevention Conference sponsored by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C., Jan. 11, 2010. DoD photo by Elaine Wilson  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. At her homecoming, “I ran to...

I am a real estate investor (wholesaler, for now) in the Baltimore, MD area and I was wondering if there were other RE investors out there in FRland. I wanted to open a forum thread to discuss strategies on how to invest in these harsh economic times and what to invest in. I've been a Real Estate investor for about a year and believe that we have a huge opportunity to make good money given that the housing market is so low. You know, buy low, sell high, right? However, I would like to talk to other RE investors who...

The other day, deep in Rego Park, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, Stanley Moscowitz and Walter Israel sat down at a Formica table for lunch at Ben's Best Kosher Deli on Queens Boulevard. Moscowitz, who's 53 and grew up in nearby Forest Hills, ordered first: matzo ball, tip of the tongue, roast beef, rye, Russian, onions and Dr. Brown's diet cherry drink. Israel ordered pastrami on rye bread. His son Jason ordered pastrami on white. In his defense, Jason did not ask for mayonnaise, but the combination of pastrami and white bread enjoys a certain...

The record U.S. budget deficit poses a serious risk to the U.S. economy, and Congress and President Barack Obama don’t seem to have a plan to deal with it. The risk is that our largest debt holders, the Chinese, seem uneasy about their holdings during a time when the annual deficit is four times larger than last year. In the past 10 months, the federal government has spent about $3 trillion while taking in about $1.74 trillion. Should the Chinese begin to sell some of their holdings, interest rates in the U.S. could increase dramatically. While the Obama administration apparently...

A federal judge in San Francisco has sided with Hollywood studios and ruled against RealNetworks’ DVD-copying software saying RealDVD allows users to engage in copyright infringement. U.S. District Court Marilyn Patel, in an order issued late Aug. 11, wrote that RealDVD “circumvents a technological measure that effectively controls access to or copying of the studios’ copyrighted content on DVDs.” Patel’s order effectively bars RealNetworks from selling RealDVD in any form, including its Facet DVD player that can create and store DVD copies. Dan Glickman, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, said he was “very pleased” by...

Excerpted from Yes We Did! An inside look at how social media built the Obama brand (New Riders) Obama's official social network, my.barackobama.com, was at the heart of the campaign’s new media strategy. Affectionately referred to internally as MyBO, the site allowed users to create events, exchange information, raise funds, and connect with voters in their area. MyBO was the digital home base from which the campaign could mobilize its army of supporters. Creating an account required an email address and a password. Users didn’t even have to confirm their email address. This was done to make the sign-up process...

Even as banks grapple with rising foreclosures, many lenders have something else to worry about: A rising tide of potential losses from commercial real estate loans that could reach into the billions.

There's is a lot of activity out on the coast that may indicate a reawakening of the housing market there - and across the country. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- No state has been harder hit by the housing bust than California. It has piled up more foreclosures and has endured among the worst home-price declines. The median price of a single-family home sold in February was $247,590, down 41% from 12 months earlier, according to the California Association of Realtors (CAR). And home construction in the Golden State has nearly vanished: December housing permits shrank to about a quarter of...