One of the best parts of blogging is receiving tips from readers. I read an awful lot every day, but typically if a story does not come through my feed reader, I don’t see it. So, thank you for these two interesting stories.

First up is this story on the growing movement advocating for equal rights for gays in the workplace. When there is the potential for profit, corporate worlds will move mountains. Referencing my story earlier this week on this subject, I reiterate my opinion regarding singling out any segment of the population for individualized treatment – I don’t care. I don’t care about one’s sexuality, politics, race, beliefs, etc. I do care about whether they are financially qualified to purchase the home that they want to choose. Either way, all people deserve to be treated well.

Next is this story from Agora Financial showing that the rosy ad campaign by the NAR may just be somewhat biased:) CAAR’s 3rd Quarter Market Report is here (PDF). My end-of-year analysis is a work-in-progress. Of particular note in the Agora article is this –

New home sales may have risen in theory, but in actual practice, it is likely that sales declined considerably. The reason we can say that is because cancellations are not reflected in new home sales stats and cancellations have been soaring.

All real estate is local. I wrote about cancellations’ impact on the Charlottesville region’s market in October. In short, I do not see that as having a significant impact on our local market.
But – I have noticed the large national builder who has a local presence showing more aggressive marketing tactics and price reductions.

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