Good deal? Or steal?

Today it's Philadelpha, Saturday it was Boston, but yesterday it was New York. About 1000 people packed the ballroom of the Hyatt Hotel at Grand Central Station in Midtown Manhattan on Sunday, all trying to snap up a bargain on...

Continue reading "Good deal? Or steal? "

June 8, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (7)

Leading By Example

Back to Detroit again... where the real estate news remains deplorable. This round is not only deplorable, but shameful as well. Turns out Detroit city councilman Kwame Kenyatta and his wife walked away from their beautiful home. I won't recount...

Continue reading "Leading By Example"

April 23, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (7)

Getting Dirty at the White House

First Lady Michelle Obama is getting her hands dirty -- and I applaud her for it. In overseeing the planting of a vegetable garden at the White House today, the First Gardener is setting an example. Like many commenters posting...

Continue reading "Getting Dirty at the White House"

March 20, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (35)

How Greed Killed Suburban Federal

Last Friday I was in Fort Meyers, Fla., shooting a piece on the foreclosure court there. Watch the report, which we crashed for air Friday night: Toward the end, the real estate agent we interviewed started telling me how the...

Continue reading "How Greed Killed Suburban Federal"

February 24, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (21)

Fort Myers: 'Perfect Storm' for Foreclosures

President Barack Obama takes his pitch on the road today to Fort Myers, Fla., an area hit hard by unemployment and rising foreclosures. My younger brother Les lived in Fort Myers many years ago, and I thought it was such...

Continue reading "Fort Myers: 'Perfect Storm' for Foreclosures "

February 10, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (23)

A little Christmas present from Odell Barnes

Bad news out today about the housing market: sales of single-family homes down 8 percent in November from the previous month, and the median price of a home down 13 percent from the same time last year. Not a pretty...

Continue reading "A little Christmas present from Odell Barnes"

December 23, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (3)

On Fifth Avenue with Tim Gunn

I know this is the Realty Check blog, but stay with me here. Bad subprime mortgages led to financial market meltdown which led to fashion retrenchment (no pun intended), and that leads to my shoot with Project Runway guru Tim...

Continue reading "On Fifth Avenue with Tim Gunn"

November 25, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (3)

The Hidden Costs of Homeownership

In our Odell Barnes piece Tuesday night on Nightline, we showed pictures of a variety of houses. Tiny neat bungalows... a lovely brick cottage... a moderate-sized brick tudor... and a beautiful salmon-colored brick colonial, measuring 5,000 square feet, that is...

Continue reading "The Hidden Costs of Homeownership"

November 21, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (5)

Response from Odell Barnes

Apologies... We posted Odell's response on Thursday, but in a hard-to-find spot on our site... Here it is today, hopefully where you would expect to find it... VM I appreciate all of the messages you have posted to the story...

Continue reading "Response from Odell Barnes"

November 21, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (48)

Odell Barnes to Respond Tomorrow

We at ABC News and "Nightline" are both heartened and saddened by the number of responses we've received to the story we aired last night on real estate investor Odell Barnes. Heartened because we love hearing from you and knowing...

Continue reading "Odell Barnes to Respond Tomorrow"

November 19, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (131)