7 Responses to “Boston Housing Economist Karl “Chip” Case” »»

1. rich
   Comment by rich | 12/02/09 at 6:01 am

   My question: When the Fed stops buying mortgages next year, how high does Chip think that mortgage rates will go to?

   (I believe that the Fed purchased about $1.5 trillion dollars worth of mortgages in the last 12 months. It is why we are seeing record low mortgage rates.)

2. confused
   Comment by confused | 12/02/09 at 7:13 am

   I heard Representative Michael Capuano who is running for the open Senate seat on NPR yesterday. He said he lived in Somerville. One of his arguments was that he wasn’t a millionaire, his home value had just risen so much since 198x when he bought it that his assets make it look like he was worth 1.5 million. He then proceeded to state that he couldn’t afford to buy the house at today’s prices. So my question would be, if a US congressman can’t afford a house in Somerville, which he bought in the 80’s, who can afford these prices?

3. JG
   Comment by JG | 12/02/09 at 9:35 am

   Ask him:

   I blog about Boston real estate sales and I love comparing this year’s to last year’s sales information in various sections of Boston.

   How big of a population of sales do you need for the information to useful as opposed to possibly deceptive?

4. BS, Boston, MA
   Comment by BS, Boston, MA | 12/02/09 at 9:49 am

   JG, You really want to know the answer to that? There are a boat load of stats books you can get that discuss sample size and confidence intervals. But your point is (or should be) well taken.

   Q: In your opinion, how much impact does press coverage have on home price apprecation/deprecation as opposed to fundamentals? Or does he think it’s possible to disentangle impact of popular press coverage on consumer confidence vs. fundamental changes in economic indicators on consumer confidence and ulitimatley on buyer behavior.

   Follow-up; Has this factor changed recently with addtion of bloggers, CNBC, FOX Business, CNN.com? Does he think this has pos or neg impact on cycle?

5. anon2
   Comment by anon2 | 12/02/09 at 10:11 am

   Q: What are the prospects for the future (no pun intended) of the S&P/Case-Shiller housing futures contracts? They have been trading at an extremely low volume and I was wondering if this bodes ill for their continued existence or conversely if there are plans in the pipeline to drum up more interest?

6. Laura K
   Comment by Laura K | 12/03/09 at 1:53 am

   Mary, I love your comments, they bring a balance to this blog. But is Lynn D correct? Thank you Mary in advance for your response.

7. Laura K
   Comment by Laura K | 12/03/09 at 1:56 am

   John, the question I would like you to ask. In one word how would Profesor Case describe what the Boston condo market will look like for 2010

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