Craig's Virtual List is an Actual Goldmine...

Ahhhhhh.... Craigslist. That crunchy granola commune-on-the-web. Source of slightly-used steal-of-a-deal large screen TVs, purebred puppies and new employees. One part yard sale, one part classified job site and one part hook-up site. I used to think of CL as embodying an updated zeitgeist from the sixties. Everything should be free and everyone should share. Then I stumbled across this headline from Inman News. "Craigslist Revenue May Reach $81 Million This Year."

Wow. Who knew? Turns out that those teeny-weeny $25 and $10 charges CL hits up its employee seekers and property sellers -- in just a few urban markets -- really add up. Imagine if they charged everyone everywhere ten bucks to post a job ad? They'd be rich, I tell ya, rich. Oh, I mean richer.

The article is here.

Reality Check 101: Mortgage Counseling in a Down Market

Now that the subprime mortgage crisis has left all of us in the industry with quite the morning after hangover, fellow blogger Helen A. at Bankaholic sent us this link intended for those finding themselves looking for property in this buyers' market. Helen reminds us that subprime lending was a historic exception in the history of residential lending and offers sound advice for buyers. Namely, she writes that buyers should have their finances in order and not buy more of a house than they can afford. By doing so, buyers can take advantage of the large inventory of price-depressed housing on the market now and benefit from what are still historically low interest rates. The entire article is here...

Dorothy, We're Not in Lower Manhattan Anymore

PhillySkyline.com ran a well-written story the other day about Philadelphia's proposed new addition to its skyline, the American Commerce Center. With a floor to top-of-spire height of 1500', the building would be significantly higher than its Center City brethren and bring a sense of renewed urban cache to our fair city. I'm not going to write at length, because the PhillySkyline article is thorough. I will however, note, visually, the project's uncanny resemblance to another noteworthy project originally slated to be built about 100 miles north of here...

The PhillySkyline article is here.