After scaring homeowners, buyers and sellers witless for the last three years, the financial press and stock analyst economists contributed mightily to the decline of housing in 2006, where homes have lost value recently for the first time since the National Association of Realtors began keeping records back in 1968. Now these same self-serving analysts, who would like to see day-trading home investors pour their money back into stocks, are saying the worst is over, according to a new Wall Street Journal Online survey.
Downward pressure on real estate commissions is everywhere these days. On the residential side of the business, agents and companies are up against an abundance of discount companies offering homeowners the ability to list and sell their homes at substantially reduced rates.