Anecdotal Evidence from the Boston Real Estate Market

My wife and I have been in the market for our first house for a little over a year now; the stars finally aligned recently and we pulled the trigger. Apparently we're not alone. And from the Completely Anecdotal department, all of the property alerts I set up on Redfin while we were house hunting are showing a distinct uptick in the number of properties going under contract. While my experience is limited to one square mile here in Boston, in that square mile, I've seen sellers slowly get much more realistic with prices, and perhaps that's finally bringing buyers back to the table.

Changing the Rules in the Middle of the Game

Just caught Maxed Out on Showtime. Opinions on credit cards and bankruptcy aside, it does seem totally unreasonable to change the interest rate on money someone has already borrowed. it's one thing to say, "hey, you're being risky -- if you want to borrow any more money, we're going to jack up your interest rate."; quite another to reprice your product after a customer has already purchased it.