Welcome to the 12th edition of the Real Estate Recap: Week of Real Estate in Review. Today we are going to have a leisurely chat about getting rid of stuff. This stuff is defaulted mortgages, pesky insects and defaulted loans.

Get out your mp3 player and tune in.

Nest eggs are hatching and have flown the coop

It used to be that you could count your chickens before they hatched when it came to real estate profits. Enter the material world and the advent of the home equity loan--used for everything from car shopping to college educations--and suddenly that tidy sum that was sitting securely in residential residences across the United States started playing a Houdini disappearing act. According to Chris Palmeri in "Our Shrinking Home Equity", the equity in residential holdings has flipped from 84% in 1945 to 48% in 2007.

You mean, using your equity like a debit card might not be a good idea?

Unemployment soars to 5.5%

This is news all over the place this week--some decree it to be the biggest jump in two decades. An interesting comment thread is kicking on Topix around this number. Some question the quality of the labor force that is currently employed, "because the American education system produces McDonald's employees," (ouch) while others are chalking it up to the Democrats in Congress.

How many of these are real estate agents who pursued the profession when the market was booming and jobs in other professions were harder to come by?

Real estate gets the shakedown

There are more opportunities available to real estate buyers and sellers than in years past because of the advent of the Internet. Now real estate buyers can do their research first without contacting a real estate agent to do the legwork for them. More opportunity opened up with the recent ruling by the Department of Justice, which will give even more access to coveted listing information.

What services will set real estate agents apart from the rest in the coming years?

If you enjoyed this post, you might want to read:

• Real estate recap: Week of Real Estate in Review (Edition XI)
• Real estate recap: Week of Real Estate in Review (Edition X)
• Real estate recap: Week of Real Estate in Review (Edition IX)

Posted by Rebecca D. Levinson

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