Speculating by Claudia Sonea

The housing market was spurred by the speculators and their rapid purchase, but the crisis has scared many of them. However, there are still many optimists like Jeff Lewis, the glitzy real-estate speculator and protagonist of the reality show Flipping Out broadcasted by Bravo. It is in question just for how long with this crisis worsening each day, with the banks’ tougher regulations and the lenders being stricter.
For instance Lewis had a booming in the program's first two seasons buying and redesigning homes, but will he have the same fortune now that the housing market has reached the lowest level? In addition he also faces numerous issues like the boundaries of a $2.5 million property and losing most of his Hollywood clientele. After the show he received a hand full of requests to update houses. On the other hand lenders require 40% down payment and six months' worth of mortgage payments are required by the banks, thus the amount of money spent on the update has decreased severely.
In this risky job of market speculation everything can change from one day to another and in 2007 only 40,000 transactions were from speculation. It is quite a change looking back at the 425,000 in 2005. You shouldn’t be surprised if even the glitzy Lewis will flee and head towards safer and warmer shores. Rumor has it that Bravo is thinking to broadcast again the show, do you think Lewis will still be on business by then? Or better yet, will there still be a niche of this kind?


related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/0847b4109090693045;_ylt=AlNfTAdxfcSbh.U4gXX_KMas0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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