one thing we find with successful realtors compared to non-successfulç realtors, the successful ones their clients throu referrals. they have served their clients well, so they are getting friends and others referred over to them. they have to serve the client's interest over the long term, not about that single transaction. from a consumer's point of view, they need to talk to people. which real-estate professional has treated them well? host: olney, maryland. chuck. caller: i get so tired of the bush bashing, the partisanship, but if you look back, the community reinvestment act, that is the start of where this happened. you look back at the last çcaller, which is true. when you buy a house, real estates in the bubble were going way beyond the parameters of finding comps. they were going out six, 10 miles to find a home that they could comp. then a home appraiser says that it can sell for $840,000. they put the stamp on it, then they go to the banks and lenders. çthe people cannot afford this process. they raised their levels of income, they go back to look at their assets nurses

one thing we find with successful realtors compared to non-successfulç realtors, the successful onestheir clients through referrals. they have served their clients well, so they are getting friends and others referred over to them. they have to serve the client's interest over the long term, not about that single transaction. from a consumer's point of view, they need to talk to people. which real-estate professional has treated them well? host: olney, maryland. chuck. caller: i get so tired of the bush bashing, the partisanship, but if you look back, the community reinvestment act, that is the start of where this happened. you look back at the last çcaller, which is true. when you buy a house, real estates in the bubble were going way beyond the parameters of finding comps. they were going out six, 10 miles to find a home that they could comp. then a home appraiser says that it can sell for $840,000. they put their stamp on it, then they go to the banks and lenders. çthe people cannot afford this process. they raised their levels of income, they go back to look at their assets nur

but realtors are still worried about the availability of credit.y shows the foreclosures are down but still made up one quarter of all u.s. home sales between july and september. in comparison, foreclosures accounted for just one percent of all housing sales during 2005, the peak of the housing boom. the freeze on some foreclosures did not seem to affect sales of homes in that category. >>> a restaurant tahoe -- tahoe restaurant owner says he was forced to shoot a bear who charged him. bill hunter says the 34500- pound bear broke into his restaurant four times in the same week. on one visit the bear broke through a window and ate two tubs of ice cream. this time he got violent. >> he got really agitated, charged around the table there, shot him right here, and he went over towards the fireplace, across the -- 35 feet within a heartbeat. he was on me before i had a chance to do anything. >> he called wildlife officials twice before the shooting but they didn't respond. he does not regret killing the bear because he felt his life was in danger but fe

what are the pros and cons of selling it myself or a realtor and that comes from matt and you hear thatuestion a lot. with how hard it is now, people think why doesn't i skip the fee. >> and they say i lost money or i wanted this much and i can only get this much so i will try to save. you won't don't want to be penny wise and pound-foolish. make sure you know what you are doing. because if there's a number things that are incorrect. we talked months ago. maryland has a loophole that the seller can actually rescind the contract. it's crazy things out there. i think at this point it's better to go with an expert. interview a couple realtors and you can cut a deal and say how about if we joint market i pay you smaller percentage if i find a buyer and there's things to work out. and realtors are look to work with you and compromise and help you market the property pu they know best and will have the legal and everything else behind it. so, while you can do it and if you know what you are doing, i would say the market if you don't know what you are doing, go with the experts. >> before we g

realtors say they are worried about the availability of credit. >>> a new report this morning shows the sales of homes in foreclosure is down. they still made up one quarter of all u.s. home sales between july and september. to compare that foreclosures accounted for 1% of all housing sales during 2005, the peak of the housing boom. realty track says the freeze did not seem to effect sales of homes in that category. >>> bart is doing something giving away thousands of free gifts this morning. 120,000 bart tickets are handed out to bart riders trying tone courage everybody to ride bart when they do their holiday shopping. each is for a one way trip. the give away started at 6:00 this morning, it's going to continue until 9:00 a.m. in san san francisco. in oakland the free tickets will be handed out at bart's 12th street station and bart's berkley downtown station. bart says ridership during the thanksgiving period was up slightly this year. more than 62,000 rider took bart to san francisco international airport from last wednesday to this monday. that's slightly more than 1% increase ove

. >> and what was the role of your realtor, agent in this process? >> apparently, they did not do their fiduciary duty to help me, so i have been screwed left and right by everybody who i thought was here to protect me. it has been held. i wish i had never bought this house. >> i have a question of counsel. should we do that now or after? this is an interesting issue of me for noticing. i have a question as to -- this is at the crux of it for me. even though there was a new owner of the time we issued a notice, we issued it to the wrong person because we believe the previous owner was still the current owner. who was the legal owner of the time of the issuance of hour notice? >> there was a notice for the directors hearing in january. then there was the actual order of abatement. at the time, the order of abatement issued ownership had changed, according to the document -- >> the follow up is, is it then the bank's responsibility to notify any subsequent owner, transfer? that is not really within your jurisdiction -- >> this is more establishing for

it also has the national small business association, the national association of realtors, and even the conservative americans for tropical storm -- tax reform think this is a good idea. the credit union national association projects that these reforms, they are sensible reforms, would increase small business lending by $10 billion within the first year, with an increase of nearly $200 million in my home state. i'm sure it would be similar to my good friend from oklahoma's state and all of the senators who serve in the senate. it's also expected to increase 100,000 jobs nationwide. the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. mr. udall: mr. president, this is disappointing. it's a shame we can't move this important legislation forward. we should be helping our economy. we're embroiled here in obstruction. i will continue to fight for this. i hope other senators who are here today will join me in helping me unleash the power of our credit unions to get americans back to work. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inho

the realtors have explained to me, and it impacts the houses surrounding me. if you're wondering why we are having to lay people off, look no further. the revenue impact is going to be tremendous when it is 8 feet. [chime] i think this legislation is a good step in the right direction as has been voiced. i worry about how it will help anyone retroactively that is having to live with a buy -- blight like this. thank you. >> supervisors, first let me state something. we, the city, should have an expert that gives us critical data on the electromagnetic field radio waves that are in close proximity to the constituents whom the pay their taxes. what we have heard here from the business people is that we can spend millions of dollars, and they do it here in san francisco. what happens in washington, millions of dollars are given to congress people by the lobbyists. they come over here and they tell us, they are discriminating. are they discriminating? who is being discriminated against? the so-called inspectors or advocates, how many poor people are being affected

this realtor says that in this case they have the same responsibility of any other landlord. >> obviously there is somebody that is maintaining this building or checking on the building. >> reporter: it is not clear who was checking on the building. two residents said they had not paid rent to anyone since the bank took over last year. we do not know if they were collecting rent or if people were still living here at all. our calls to media relations director went on returned today. -- unreturned today. >>> unplowed streets have been causing outrage. the new york post is reporting sanitation workers deliberately left streets unplowed ambrose such as staten island and brooklyn and. they say that several operators confessed to the plot saying that their supervisors have ordered them to neglect routes in order to shame mayor bloomberg for layoffs. >>> the labor department is reporting a sharp drop in unemployment benefits. figures show first-time applications fell by 34,000. that is the lowest level in about 2.5 years. california saw the biggest drop in the economist say the latest figures m

this is sponsored by a bunch of realtors. so this was a midsummer's celebration called summer solstice. the noe valley harvest festival, we do that in partnership with the noe valley farmer's market. this year, we have done a holiday celebration on 24th street. with the cbd did was enable us to create an infrastructure that was clean and beautiful and green. in doing so, it brought people together locally as well as organizations in the neighborhood together. so you have merchants working with the farmers' market, friends with noe valley, in ways that they did not six years ago. but because we have a beautiful space, we can do all of these things, and businesses also contribute to these events, and it has become very successful. thank you for your time. supervisor mar: supervisor chu. supervisor chu: the benches with the planter boxes, they look great. the question on logistics. was that on the property owner's property, did it require encroachment? >> no, nick from dpw to care of it. it did not encroach on their property at

housing market, international asciation of realtors.own 2.2%, pending home sales and october up 10.4% and medium sales price about $170,000, down nearly 1% from last year. what do those numbers mean to you? guest: existing home sales measures act of the closings. signing at the closing tables, getting the keys. the pending contract refers to contract signing that is not yet closed. given that it rose 10% implies that months of november and december could be a little that -- a little better than people anticipated. of course, with the normal seasonal downturn in the winter months but perhaps of this winter when not be as bad as what we encountered in the past. host: have you seen a number like that in the past year, pending home sales rising so much? guest: that would be a very sizable jump so i was quite surprised and welcoming the figures. remember, coming off a very depressed level. obviously there is additional 10% increase that needs to occur to say that we are back to more normal, sustainable, market conditions. host: you mentioned

one realtor says after you fix it up, with taxes, the mortgage would be about $500 a month, or less. >>> san francisco officials are pondering a proposed new lieu -- law that would require at least 50% of workers hired on city project would have to be san francisco residents. san francisco chronicle reports the board of supervisors is set to vote on the local hire rules. the new rules would be phased in overtime. in the first year employers would be required to hire 25% of their work force from san francisco. if you're looking for work, check out our next job fair. it's next tuesday, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the winham hotel in san jose. >> a group attempted to adopt out hundreds of rats. and leigh glasser will be here to tell us how much more rain is coming our way. >> mike: stanford is going bowling, it has a citrus flavor. for a limited time, smartphones talk free. share minutes for free when you add a smartphone to a family shareplan. and now, buy an lg vortex and get one free. >> alan: rodents may not be your fate favorite things but they make great pets. nearly 1,000 wer

icbc's bank was suspended for three months for facilitating a local realtor to allow the flow of $26 million in foreign funds in january last year by overlooking insufficient documents. two officials in charge of the operation at the time were fined. the other banks in question be have been partially suspended or fined. the chinese government has been vil gant for the influx of speculative hot money in an effort to prevent it from accelerate inflationary pressures in the country. >>> the bank of tokyo mitsubishi ufc is going to increase funding by up to $11 billion in a bid to facilitate the country's rapidly increasing infrastructure. the boost in capital will allow the bank to raise the amount of loans available per client by 30%. the indian government plans to carry out large scale projects to build new roads, ports and power plants at a cost of $1 trillion. major u.s. and european banks have already launched large lending services in india. the japanese bank says it will try to catch up with those banks by increasing lending to indian firms taking part in the projects. >>> japan'

our zoning administrator contacted the realtor, who said that the newspaper misrepresented what was conveyed. i wrote a letter to the newspaper asking them to print my letter to the editor pointing out that. indeed, the property is actually zoned for five units. not only is it sold for five units, it was turned down for a dwelling unit merger in 2005 by this commission. the newspapers did -- the newspaper said they are not the real estate police and that the properties and a listing. we checked it. the point is if you see something advertised in the paper even on the real-estate page, the likelihood is that it is owned in a way for multiple dwelling units and that you should check into that because we do not like the demolition of dwelling units in the city that has a housing shortage. i just want to caution people about this challenge so that it is out there, so we do not have people coming before us. it is really unfortunate that the newspaper was less cooperative on that point. commissioner miguel: thank you. commissioner antonini: many of you may have noticed in the "chronicle" yesterday

the national association of realtors says 4.8 million homes were sold in november. that's a gain of 5 poi 5% -- 5.5%. the commerce department has gin o verall economy. the gross domestic product j umped 2.6% from july to september as business spent more to build their inventories. commits are predicting a b etter -- commits are predicting a better-than-expected report due to increased consumer s pending. news that the economy grew faster than expected over the summer was well received on wall street. >>> the state's audi ter is accusing sloppy work. the department of community services and development, public health, transportation and the water resources control board, they all had problems following federal guidelines. >> that is what one of the key goals was to try to get people back to work. so it's really critical that california properly report the benefit that the state has achieved and the number of jobs that have been funded or create bide the recovery act. >> the state has spent roughly half of the $50 billion it received in federal bailout money. >>> gove

the nation's realtors say sales rose 5.6% last month, but on the positive side, prices inched up for the first time since august to a national median of70,000. >> be honest with yourself, what do you think your abilities are to pay this back? >> reporter: still ahead, in tonight's money profiles, questions you should ask to avoid unmanageable debt. >> susie: like many of us, congress is scrambling to wrap things up before christmas. this afternoon, president obama called the congressional session of the past few weeks "a season of progress for the american people." as darren gersh reports, lawmakers have surprised many with a spurt of last-minute productivity. >> reporter: how is congress like a college student? it left a lot to the last minute, and is now working around the clock to catch up. and that joke, says economics professor donald marron, has consequences. >> the number one feature of our tax code now is that every significant portion of the tax code has a big temporary tax cut in it. individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, payroll taxes and the estate tax. all of t

the realtors index of pending home sales jumped 10.4% in october. and the european central bank is beefing up the credit markets of countries at risk there. the bank will buy more government bonds of some financially stressed countries like spain and portugal. still ahead, from "home, sweet home" to "home, tiny home, or how micro-houses are the next big thing when it comes to living in japan. >> tom: some big news from the nation's retailers today that suggests holiday sales are off to a merry start. many stores reported november sales numbers, and a closely watched index showed an average increase of 6%, almost double expectations. erika miller looks at whether sweeter holiday sales will mean more retail hiring after christmas. >> reporter: let's not sugarcoat things. sales at the chocolate boutique michel cluizel are up over last year, but store manager michele saint laurent says customers are spending less per transaction. >> i think that they're probably looking to get as much for their dollar as they can. so they are spending maybe a little bit

show tomorrow, we will talk about the housing market with the head of the national association of realtors. we will talk about the opposition to the obama demonstration -- obama administration to the moratorium on offshore drilling. we will see you then. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> coming up, a look at recent moves by the fed to help the economy with the head of the federal reserve bank in st. louis. after that, portions of this week's hearings on capitol hill on the repeal of don't ask, don't tell in the military. heads of the military branches testified in front of the military armed forces committee. today on c-span 2, join our conversation with salman rushdie. first, what doest w. bush's appearance. it will be followed by a round- table discussion. and president jimmy carter looks back at his presidency. fine schedule information online at booktv.org. >> if i had to put my money on an outcome, peace in iran will be brought up that -- brought new ruler and dictator. john barnes -- john burns on c- sp

the realtors association's pending home sales index was up 3.5% to its highest level in seven months. the trade group says that supports its forecast for a gradual recovery in housing next year. and the nation's online retailers had a holly jolly christmas. holiday sales were up 13%. tracking firm comscore says that works out to almost $31 billion in sales. still ahead, keeping fragile items safe with environmentally friendly fungus. could this be the end of styrofoam packaging? some answers in tonight's "planet forward" report. in a year of double-digit stock gains, one of the oldest known forms of money did even better. gold began this year around $1,100 an ounce and went over $1,400 an ounce in december. adolfo laurenti is the deputy chief economist at mesirow financial. he joins us from the c.m.e. group in chicago. frank mcghee is the head metals strategist at i.b.s. metals. >> frank, want to different with you what is your prediction for gold prices in 2011? >> well, i ultimately think the gold market will have a next internal highway somewhere in the area of 1580 to 1640. now th

lawrence yun, chief economist for the national association of realtors, is optimistic the new year will bring good tidings for the housing market. >> i anticipate that home sales will rise anywhere from 5% to 10% in 2011 and the catalyst for driving home sales higher will be the improving economy and job creation. >> reporter: still some experts aren't uncorking the champagne just yet. while mortgage rates are still near historic lows they have been trending up in recent weeks. russ haraus from appraisal research counselors fears that could spell trouble for sales and home values which have plummeted roughly 20% over the past few years. >> we may see somewhat of a pull back in the spring market if that continues, and so we could see somewhat of a price decline. >> reporter: foreclosures are another problem. while they were down last month as lenders addressed questionable filing procedures, foreclosures are expected to spike again. and this time they could affect a very different demographic. >> a man built a multi million dollar house-- 20,000 square feet. unfortunately, he had financi

according to the national association of realtors, about 13% of retail properties nationwide are vacant. that's about the same as it was this time last year, and is expected to hold steady through next year. this is the first building agouridis' group has transformed. the art display went up a couple of weeks ago, and managers here are already taking calls from potential tenants. >> i was surprised, because there's not been a lot of activity in the real estate market down here, especially this time of year. >> reporter: jamie brawner's family owns the building. he says now he can be more selective when choosing a tenant. >> we've gotten a number of unsolicited phone calls from prospective small businesses wishing to relocate to the building, and also from real estate agents representing tenants looking for valuable retail space. >> reporter: d.c. isn't the only city decorating vacant storefronts. it's also happening around the country in places like san francisco and chicago. and as properties sit empty, agouridis hopes art will give passersby some peace of mind. >> one piece of art mak