5.29.11
This is an Archival Site
There is now a new Rogovoy Report home
5.18.11
Weekend Preview May 19-24
Bob Dylan tributes, Deborah Voigt, Tom Paxton, Bill Kirchen, John Kirk and Trish Miller
5.18.11
Celebrating Bob Dylan's 70th Birthday in Style
Paying tribute to the greatest rock songwriter ever
5.17.11
FILM REVIEW: In a Better World and Of Gods and Men
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.17.11
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5.12.11
Deborah Voigt Headlines Mahaiwe Gala
Opera star to sing arias, show tunes on Saturday, May 21
5.15.11
Famed Spiritual Teacher to Speak on Nonviolence
Mother Maya in free talk at Sruti Yoga in Great Barrington, Mass., on Friday May 20 at 7pm
5.12.11
Special Effects Wizard to Be Honored by Film Festival
Doug Trumbull to be Feted by BIFF
5.11.11
Weekend Preview May 12-16
Cultural Highlights of the Berkshire Weekend
6.4.09
Talk about a small world
Elaine and I grew up together, but only just recently met....
5.8.11
Berkshire Living to Cease Publication
A Farewell from Publisher Michael Zivyak
5.8.11
twiGs Branches Out
Lenox boutique launches new e-tail site
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
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Quote of the day
7.24.05
"The greed run rampant is finally tapering off." -- Beverly Milenski, a real estate agent with ReMax Realtors in Pittsfield, Mass., quoted in "Home Sales Soften ," a story alleging the start of a decline in Berkshire home sales and prices, in today's Berkshire Eagle.
Took a look at the article, and a couple of things seem to leap out at me. As is often the case, an agent (not a broker, mind you) mistakes the utilitarian housing market with the second (and third) home market. One is shelter, the other a luxury. Housing buyers need, second home buyers want. Very different motivations.
The thesis that a market even could be "overun by greed" seems to be a poorly founded economic argument, as well. A transaction is a transaction, and a broker's job is to maximize their employer's return (usually the seller, but not always). Not sure I would want someone as an agent for my interests who defines the arms-length market price of my commodity as "greedy", nor would I be particularly pleased at being encouraged to give up a maximized return on my investment for some specious social obligation. The word, Ms. Milenski, is "fiduciary", and it is a DUTY you owe your client, the seller who is paying for your services (and trusting your judgement because you hold yourself out as being in possession of special skills and knowledge).
But most of all, I see here another Eagle article that really is superficial, and demonstrates a lack of awareness of the context of Berkshire County's demographic dichotomy. That 300K average price is really a statistical mean, with 100K housing in PCB infested decaying Pittsfield being tossed into the same spreadsheet as 500K Colonials and mini-farms (which are only rising to that level because NW Connecticut has little to no product below $1,000,000).
I may just be a grumpy ol' man, but as CNN's Christianne Amanpour said in another context, this fuzzy thinking is one of my pet "bugaboos".
7/26/2005
can you take anyone who refers to her self as B-MILE seriously?
7/26/2005
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