City Lakes "Hits"

"Top Ten" Google Hits . . . Worldwide!

OK, so no one would confuse the traffic on this blog with The Drudge Report or The Huffington Post.

Still, run a Google search on any of the following 56(!) key terms, and you'll find the related City Lakes blog post ranked in the top 10 hits . . . worldwide! In fact, many of the posts are ranked in the top three.

Go ahead, try it (posts with an asterisk* have been especially popular):

"Financial-Industrial Complex"
"Real Estate & Inflation"*
"Freakonomics Rebuttal"*
"Realtor Demographics"
"Realogy Bankruptcy"*

"The Loop Calhoun"
"Westin Galleria Edina"
"Highest & Best - Explained"
"Lakefront Premium"
"'As Is' Misconceptions"

"Realtors & Angie's List"
"Zillow & Social Networking"
"Bracketing, explained"
"Bernie Madoff & the Path to Recovery"*
"Price Reductions: A Realtor's Take"

"Foreclosure Feeding Frenzies"
"Contractor Etiquette"
"Real Estate Auction Checklist"
"George Soros on CDS"
"Firing Your Realtor"

"Dear Client Letter"*
"Financial Son of Sam Law"
"Peggy Noonan Recession Trends"
"Marooned in the Exurbs"
"Vanishing FSBO's"

"Defending Sodom & Gomorrah"
"Warren Buffett's Crystal Ball"
"Taking Trulia for a Spin"
"Light Rail Impact on Property Values"
"Underwater vs. Drowned Mortgages"

"Consumer Payment Hierarchy"
"Rehab Mistake"
"Investing in New Windows"
"Mpls St. Paul magazine super real estate agent"
"Title in a Nutshell"

"Worshipping Villains"
"Price Reductions -- A Realtor's Take"
"Highest & Best - Games & Abuses"
"Home Buyer Incentives Multiply"
"Moral Hazard, Illustrated"

"Hijacked Listings"
"The Bob Newhart Economy"
"Enron Just Ahead of Its Time?"
"Bear Market Winners: First-Time Buyers"
"Is There Capitalism Without Capital?"

"Foreclosure Bait & Switch"
"Real Estate Misunderstandings"
"The World's Most Powerful Realtor"
"Deconstructing AIG"
"Realtor-to-Realtor Letters"

"You Know It's a Tear-Down When"
"Lying Realtors"
"Financial Reptiles vs. Mammals"
"John Paulson's Billons"
"Lake Calhoun Visitor"

"Cedar Lake Specialist"

Not bad for a blog ranked 1,603,173 by Technorati! (the Nielsen's of the blogosphere).

3 Weeks ahead of Strib

You Read it Here First!

Nice to be first with some good, cutting-edge housing market insights -- plus some extra analysis and context.

Compare what ran in the Strib yesterday, with my May 27 post:

The banks are selling, but banks aren't buying . . . the result: a one dimensional housing market dominated by first-time Buyers.

--"In Real Estate Fire Sale, Sellers Can Get Burned"; Star Trib (6/21/09)

Now, here's my crack at explaining the same phenomenon, back in May:

If the housing market is an escalator, anything that strengthens the lower rungs theoretically benefits the higher rungs, too. . . Unfortunately, banks, not individuals, own the foreclosed homes being snapped up. As a result, when a deal closes, the Seller doesn't automatically become a Buyer for another home.

--"Escalator Short-Circuit"; City Lakes Blog (5/27/09)