The Biosphere Next Door

By Wendy Cole, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

This weekend REALTOR® magazine Editor in Chief Stacey Moncrieff and I entered Biosphere 2, the 7.2 million cubic ft., sealed glass structure where eight Biospherians famously spent two years growing their own food, recycling their own water and waste, and, according to media accounts, getting on each other’s nerves. The experiment, which started in 1991, was intended to increase understanding of the feasibility of space colonization, by recreating Earth’s natural environments under a series of giant lattice-windowed domes.

While the United States isn’t quite ready to develop a subdivision on Mars, our 90-minute tour of the enclosed rainforest, desert, ocean, and residences revealed how prescient the Biospherians and their funders were. Biosphere 2 (Earth itself was considered the original Biosphere) was a shining example of the potential for sustainable, eco-friendly living back in the day when “green” was nothing more than a color. The facility seemed far more expansive than what I remember from TV and is well worth a visit if you’re in the Tucson area. Read more

Alison Levine: Beware of Complacency

As a child, Alison Levine suffered from a life-threatening heart condition that prevented her from even climbing the stairs and therefore couldn’t imagine that she would one day be at nearly the peak of Everest leading the first American women’s expedition to the world’s tallest mountain. On August 24 at the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® 2009 Leadership Summit, Levine recounted the lessons she learned trekking the seven summits that took her to the top in business as an associate with Goldman Sachs. Read more

Christopher Gardner Talks About ‘White-Collar Homelessness’ at Leadership Summit

By Erica Christoffer, Contributing Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

A new face of homelessness is emerging in the U.S., downtrodden from today’s economic climate.

Christopher Gardner knows all too well how the events in one’s life can topple down in a domino-effect. Gardner, CEO and founder of the Chicago-based brokerage firm Gardner Rich LLC, was homeless just 25 years ago. His autobiography was portrayed in the 2006 movie The Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith.

The keynote speaker for the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® 2009 Leadership Summit on Tuesday, Aug. 25, Gardner shed light on the group of people he referred to as “white-collar homeless,” and shared his own remarkable story.

Read more

Game Changers: The View From the ‘Summit’

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

Yesterday morning, a panel of real estate experts that talked about the notion of “game changers” — that is, disruptive ideas that will completely change the way things work in the industry — at the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® 2009 Leadership Summit in Chicago. With NAR CEO Dale Stinton moderating the session, each speaker offered a brief take on what trends might be game changers in real estate.

John Tuccillo, a business and economic consultant and a former chief economist for NAR, kicked off the discussion with advice to “change the game before the game changes you.” Read more

Bonds Are Back—Tax-Exempt Bonds, That Is

By Robert Freedman, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

Since the credit crunch hit a couple of years ago, investors have been shying away from tax-exempt bonds. That’s one aspect of the financial crisis that never received that much attention in the media, but the impact of that was severe on state and local housing finance agencies (HFAs), which make low-cost mortgage money available to working households that have trouble qualifying for conventional financing.

Like FHA, VA, and the Rural Housing Service (the old Farmer’s Home Administration), these state and local HFAs help make homeownership possible in a responsible way. That is, the loans are structured in ways that take into account the household’s ability to pay. And they almost always require some kind of financial counseling.

If the HFAs were sorely missed these last two years, then it’s indeed good news that investors are starting to invest in tax-exempt bonds again, because these bonds are how HFAs generate their low-cost money for making loans to eligible home buyers. Read more

Study Finds Connection Between Neighborhood Walkability and Home Values

By Erica Christoffer, Contributing Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

A recent study released by CEOs for Cities shows homes located in walking-friendly neighborhoods–with nearby amenities such as parks, schools, libraries, restaurants, and coffee shops­–sell at higher prices than homes in less walkable neighborhoods.

The data, provided by ZipRealty, was compiled from 94,000 real estate transactions in 15 U.S. markets. Read more

Questions About Health Care Reform

By Brian Summerfield, Online Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

As many of you have probably heard, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey recently caught some flak for writing an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal opposing any new health care entitlements on the grounds that they would have to be financed with major deficit spending.

Mackey’s article sparked a wave of outrage among political progressives, many of them Whole Foods customers. His arguments even instigated an organized boycott of the grocer that currently numbers in the tens of thousands. This is just one instance that demonstrates how high emotions run in this debate, and some claim the intense passions we’re seeing expressed on both sides of the political spectrum are about more than just health care.

Is that true? In a sense, yes. Emotions aside, the health care debate boils down to distinct philosophies concerning the proper role of government and the private sector, as well as conceptions of rights. Read more

Top 5 Daily News Stories Last Week

Here are the top five items from the Daily News last week: Read more

Social Networking Gains Traction in Real Estate Tech Survey

By Erica Christoffer, Contributing Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

More REALTORS® are using social networking for their business than ever before, according to data in a recent report released by the Center for REALTOR® Technology (CRT).

The study, conducted in June, found that 84 percent of 1,189 respondents use some sort of social networking tools, a significant increase from 33 percent in 2008. Twenty-eight percent say they are comfortable with it and another 27 percent are somewhat comfortable.

The most popular Web site was Facebook, with 76 percent saying they use the site, followed by LinkedIn with 58 percent. Other popular sites include Twitter, ActiveRain, RealTown, Flickr and Talk.REALTOR.com.

The vast majority –76 percent of those surveyed — say they are looking to engage with consumers through social media sites. The report also shows that REALTORS® use social networking to connect with other REALTORS®, REALTOR® organizations, real estate vendors, and family and friends. Read more

All Things Tech at Inman Real Estate Connect

By Katherine Tarbox, Senior Editor, REALTOR® Magazine

The mood in the Grand Ballroom of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, the site of the 2009 Inman News Real Estate Connect (August 5-7) conference, was remarkably upbeat. With this week’s encouraging news about the housing and job markets, the atmosphere was palpably different from just six months ago at RE Connect in New York. At 1,800, attendance was notably up from last year’s conference, and most sessions were standing-room-only.

Presenters seem to concur that signs point to a slow recovery, but recovery or not, the industry still needs to adapt to a different environment. Sherry Chris, president & CEO of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC, argued that the average office space will need to decrease from 124 sq. feet per practitioner to 49 sq. feet and that newer associates will demand more technology. Read more

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