Wednesday Link-o-Rama

Really good James Surowiecki article about median sales price: "There are plenty of statistics available about the housing market, but median home prices, which are tracked by both the National Association of Realtors and the Census Bureau, are what typically make headlines. They seem to tell buyers and sellers exactly what they want to know: how much the one has to spend, how much the other stands to make. The N.A.R. says that median sale prices for existing homes have risen fifty-seven per cent since 2000, and in many markets the increase has been much bigger than that. Although these numbers come from an association that has a vested interest in making the housing market look healthy, they do provide a roughly accurate picture of how housing prices have behaved in the past six years. But if you’re trying to figure out what kind of investment housing is—what rewards you can expect and what risks you’ll run—median prices become a lot less useful."
Remember flipping?
Not getting any easier to find a good rental, according to this.
Zillow is coming to New York and you’re invited to a party.
One reaction reportedly expressed at the Landmark Preservation Committee’s meeting on Sir Norman Foster’s upper east side skyscraper: "Vertical, glass, and circular. Masonry, rectangular, and horizontal. There is no relationship whatsoever."