The United States is warned that interest rate hikes prior to 2011 could spell doom for any hope of a recovery in the economy. OECD Cautions Against Fed Hikes Prior to 2011. The OECD upgraded its growth outlook its 30 member nations for the first time in two years, forecasting that growth will only collapse 4.1% in 2009, as compared to its March forecast of -4.3%. Despite this “optimism", the OECD warned that the US and Japan should both keep rates on hold at least until 2011 and that the ECB should cut its target rate further. The key takeaways [...]

Microsoft’s BING search engine may cause a radical shift for real estate website SEO strategies.  In the recent WAV Group report on Broker Website Effectiveness, Google was responsible for 64% of of search engine traffic.  All other search engines (including Microsoft) were responsible for 19%.  As a result, SEO specialists have focused their optimization efforts on Google as the primary search engine for their strategy. Today, in a report from web traffic measurement agency ComScore, Bing is now responsible for 16.7% of search.  This total is up from 11% when BING launched June second.  This is a remarkable shift in such [...]

Today, the Federal Funds Rate is at 0%.  This has created a surplus of Bank Reserves to fight the financial crisis.  We are also seeing deflation in the Consumer Price Index.  In parlance, the cost of living has gone down.  But deflation today, combined with a mounting Federal Deficit should lead to inflation tomorrow.  This shift should create a stimulus for real estate. In the absence of the mortgage industry and employment melt down, lower interest rates and a dip in housing prices would naturally lead to a real estate buying party.  Sadly there has not been such fanfare, and [...]