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05.05.08 Cadillac Laps the Ring! 7:59.32 John Heinricy a lap of the legendary Nordschleife Pick of the Week A wonderful Salisbury Bungalow 4.30.08 Albert Hofmann Remember April 19 - Bicycle Day 04.47.08 DLMWeb live cam A test of the Ustream.tv Kart Race at OVRP - 8hrs - June 21 2008 01.14.08 Random Motorsport and Car Related Videos YouTube Ad Test 01.07.08 Juan Manuel Fangio Video From the director of Chariots of Fire More.. |
7.26.05 Noticed this one at The Rogovoy Report, one of DLMWeb's success stories (the visitor count keeps climbing, and the colloquy Seth elicits is a fine example of what the web and blogging is all about). Quote of the day 7.24.05 "The greed run rampant is finally tapering off." -- Beverly Milenski, a real estate agent with ReMax Realtors in Pittsfield, Mass., quoted in "Home Sales Soften ," a story alleging the start of a decline in Berkshire home sales and prices, in today's Berkshire Eagle. For some reason, the article itself, and the simplistic confusion of apples and oranges (mansions and mud huts, havens and hovels, cottages and compounds etc. ), to say nothing of poorly reasoned economics really pissed me off. Here is what I said in my comment: Took a look at the article, and a couple of things seem to leap out at me. As is often the case, an agent (not a broker, mind you) mistakes the utilitarian housing market with the second (and third) home market. One is shelter, the other a luxury. Housing buyers need, second home buyers want. Very different motivations. The thesis that a market even could be "overun by greed" seems to be a poorly founded economic argument, as well. A transaction is a transaction, and a broker's job is to maximize their employer's return (usually the seller, but not always). Not sure I would want someone as an agent for my interests who defines the arms-length market price of my commodity as "greedy", nor would I be particularly pleased at being encouraged to give up a maximized return on my investment for some specious social obligation. The word, Ms. Milenski, is "fiduciary", and it is a DUTY you owe your client, the seller who is paying for your services (and trusting your judgement because you hold yourself out as being in possession of special skills and knowledge). But most of all, I see here another Eagle article that really is superficial, and demonstrates a lack of awareness of the context of Berkshire County's demographic dichotomy. That 300K average price is really a statistical mean, with 100K housing in PCB infested decaying Pittsfield being tossed into the same spreadsheet as 500K Colonials and mini-farms (which are only rising to that level because NW Connecticut has little to no product below $1,000,000). I may just be a grumpy ol' man, but as CNN's Christianne Amanpour said in another context, this fuzzy thinking is one of my pet "bugaboos". 8/30/2007 While I am at it, enough of this goddamned comment spamming. IP Addresses are now logged. 64.252.198.41 8/30/2007 Pretty slick, Minto!! 64.252.198.41 | ||