John Mulkey, Housing Guru

  Creating Success During the Great Correction    Although the recession has been declared officially over, most realize that the commonly used criteria for determining the end of this recession are severely flawed, and have little impact upon the attitudes of consumers and potential homebuyers. ...

I was recently asked to speak to a group of local real estate professionals about my views of housing in the coming decade and how I think agents should prepare in order to adapt to current and projected market conditions.  And while I plan on sharing my ideas and observations, I am limited to wh...

I recently received an email from a homeowner who wanted to know how to locate and repair leaks under a kitchen sink.  While the person was somewhat concerned after noticing a small amount of water in their sink cabinet, after monitoring the area for several days, they discovered that the water w...

  While your odds of winning the lottery may be poor, there may still be Free Money out there with your name on it; and our mobile society increases the odds that somewhere, sometime you failed to receive money that was due.  According to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrat...

An article on RESMedia reports that new homes are getting smaller, as builders plan to reduce the size of the average home to 2150 square feet within the next four years, a change of about 350 square feet from homes of just 4 years ago.  The majority of currently active builders (another area th...

With the Great Correction now in its 4th year and with the housing market still struggling, should we prepare for the market to return or create the market of tomorrow?  Waiting for a market rebound could take a long time, especially if we’re waiting for a return to the boom times of a few years ...

  Recently there have been numerous articles written debating the need for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the continued government guarantees of mortgages; but are Fannie and Freddie the only means for insuring a healthy housing market?  Some think not; but there are some good arguments supportin...

  An interesting article in the Huffington Post describes how the TV show “Flip That House," was mentioned during a 2005 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee as an example of how reckless the housing market had become.  According to the article, the committee members treated the reference...

  While economists argue over whether or not Quantitative Easing will bring the nation out of its economic doldrums, whether or not the housing market has reached a bottom, whether inflation will rear its head this year or if the unemployment rate will drop; those factors, while important, do not...

  An article in the Chicago Tribune describes how some mortgage servicers are exercising strategic default in reverse and are abandoning properties after determining that the costs of foreclosure are greater than the underlying value of the property.  Often in distressed neighborhoods, such prope...