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BARBARA CORCORAN'S SUPER BOWL THEORY EXPLAINED

Alert reader John Law II (not his real name) has found a possible explanation behind Barbara Corcoran's Super Bowl Real Estate Theory mused over in this space last week. From a CNN/Money article almost a year old, we learn:

The Super Bowl may be the grand finale of football season, but in most markets it marks the beginning of prime home buying season.

Buyers usually put house hunting on hold during the holidays, and begin heading out in full force in February.

Last year, according to the National Association of Realtors, existing home sales fell 31 percent in January, reflecting that fewer buyers were out looking in late November and early December. In March, however, sales shot up 41 percent, indicating that buyers rushed back to the market in late January and early February.

Sunday's big game will have no direct impact on the housing market, of course. But real estate agents say they expect that telephone calls and e-mail inquiries will start picking up after the weekend.

"I don't mean to stereotype because there are plenty of women who love football and just as many men who love home buying," said Diane Saatchi, a vice president in the Easthampton, N.Y. office of the Corcoran Group. "But we often get calls from women who aren't interested in the Super Bowl and are instead gearing up to buy a new house."

So be careful Super Bowl watching men of America - while you are enjoying cold beer and nachos, your wife may be perusing local real estate listings, preparing to sweet talk you into upgrading to some new McMansion that you really can't afford, but which is still within your grasp due to ever creative lending practices.

The Corcoran Group is now apparently resorting to normal seasonal patterns in real estate buying to herald a resurgent boom in home sales. As can be seen in this chart for Southern California real estate sales volume, this is a pattern which is repeated year after year - do not confuse the month-to-month increase in sales during the beginning of the year with a new boom.


Click to enlarge

Don't listen to Barbara Corcoran - you'll hate yourself in 2007, maybe sooner.

COLD HEAT

Who uses this?

Despite the best efforts of Tivo DVR technology to eliminate commercials from the lives of ordinary Americans, this product continues to penetrate our collective psyche.



It looks like a neat product - from room temperature up to 800 degrees and back to room temperature in a matter of seconds, but what is everyone soldering?

THAT'S A LOT OF DRAMAMINE

Condos at sea? Preconstruction in dry-dock?

Yes, there are now three residential cruise ships selling floating real estate priced at betwen $1 million and $15 million - homeowner's association fees are extra, extra expensive that is, but the good news is that there are no property taxes.

Who is buying? Forty percent of the World's buyers come from North America, 40% from Europe and 20% from elsewhere, with a strong representation from South Africa and Australia. The median age is 52. Buyers are overwhelmingly self-made entrepreneurs as opposed to having inherited wealth.

Who they are, well, that's a secret. Buyers enjoy a level of identity protection that rivals the FBI's witness relocation program.

The ship's residents, said the World's Upshaw, made a covenant not to grant media interviews. Management discourages ownership by high-visibility celebrities, and marketing approaches are more along the lines of a discreet tap on the shoulder from a top international realty broker than a phone call interrupting dinner.

Lee Minshull, who apparently doesn't fear being voted off the ship by his fellow homeowners, just bought the first unit on the Magellan and was happy to speak about it.

A dealer in rare antiquities who lives in Palos Verdes Estates, Minshull is about to close escrow on a $3.2-million, three-bedroom suite on the Magellan. His Palos Verdes Estates house is 6,000 square feet, and he owns a second home in Hawaii.

Minshull, who is in his mid-40s, learned of condos at sea through his membership in Exclusive Resorts, a high-end vacation club with 1,700 members. He paid $400,000 to join, and the annual fees are $25,000.

"I like traveling with people of similar means," Minshull said. "Yeah, I know how that sounds. But it's true."

HOW SAFE ARE BANKS AND HOUSES?

It's natural to wonder just how safe banks are these days. This cartoon probably sumarizes the situation better than any banker or homeowner could.