Bluestone and Hockley Real Estate Services

UPDATED: 26-Jan-2011

An uneasy political peace fell over the United States as the President and Congress navigated their lame duck session in December of 2010. The President was able to garner some level of bipartisan support that extended unemployment insurance in exchange for short term extensions of the Bush era tax breaks…[...]

UPDATED: 11-Nov-2010

Uncertainty is the watchword of the day, as investors sit on the sidelines trying to decide what to do.

Volatile midterm elections
The midterm elections and the frozen decision making in Congress regarding taxes left investors piling money into the bank or into election campaigns. With the January 21, 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, corporations, trade associations, unions, and nonprofit groups are now allowed to spend unlimited amounts of money advocating for or against politicians or political issues, though they still aren’t allowed to make direct contributions to politicians…[...]

UPDATED: 26-Oct-2010

Being faced with significant economic and political uncertainty the United States economy and its participants (that’s us) have reacted like turtles, hiding in our shells, awaiting better times.

Clearly we are facing challenging times
We have been facing low personal income growth, an increasing unemployment rate, uncertainty in the business climate, and a weak housing market…[...]

UPDATED: 01-AUG-2007

The 2007 Legislative session is over and it was a roller coaster. Approximately 3000 bills were introduced in the house and senate. Of that number, roughly 1000 bills passed. The IREM and BOMA legislative committee with help from lobbyist Bill Cross paid close attention to over 200 bills that directly affected our industry. In addition, we worked closely with Metro Multifamily Housing to add helpful[...]

UPDATED: 01-JUN-2009

Real estate partnerships have been around since the cave man’s days. This is because people have learned to pool their resources in order to reduce their risk and increase their leverage. Pooling resources enables them to have a larger down payment, stronger financial statements, or greater experience. [...]

UPDATED: 01-APR-2009

The purchasing craze of the baby boomers is on. They are buying every stick of real estate in sight. As corporate pensions vanish, social security evaporates/extends to age 70, and the stock market delivers inconsistent returns, baby boomers have increasingly turned to real estate as their retirement vehicle. Real estate investment brokers cannot currently get their hands on sufficient inventory to satisfy them, and competition has reduced returns for investors. [...]

UPDATED: 01-FEB-2004

On September 23, 2001 President Bush implemented Executive Order 13224 which gave the government, specific authorization to impede terrorist funding by disrupting and blocking the assets of foreign nationals and entities that “commit or pose a significant risk of committing acts of terrorism.” [...]

UPDATED: 01-SEP-2003

Real estate has always been one of the opportunities where investors have placed their money for the last thousand years. There have always been investment opportunities for money-lenders (a.k.a. banks) of all kinds, but real estate has been one of those investments which includes your home, and this is where the story starts. [...]