Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy reports record closings.

Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy has increased its gross commission revenue by nine percent over the comparable period last year.

Usually, September is slow because both national and religious holidays fall within the month, but this September was the biggest month in the company's history for closings as well as contracts signed.

We were up 152% for the month. Our company's listing inventory surged 90% higher than September of 2002 and it is up 40% for the nine months of 2003 versus the same time in 2002.

At Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy, we see five major trends continuing to support the market through the end of 2004. They are:

1. Paucity of Inventory: Despite CBHK's big September jump in apartments to sell, there is just too little inventory.

In April of 2002 we started seeing monthly inventory levels start rise and by the end of 2002, we had 31% more inventory than in 2001. In 2003, that trend continued with 40% more inventory through September 2003. While inventory has grown steadily for 17 months, we still have less inventory to sell than at the market peak in 2000 and just a little more than we had in 1999. Inventory levels are rising, but they are still historically low which keep prices steady.

2. Re-allocation of Investment Assets: The Bear Market on Wall Street from 2000 has positively influenced the real estate market as assets have been re-allocated out of financial products and into real estate. This is a major trend that could last for years as people feel more comfortable with something they can touch, feel and use and continue to allocate funds to real estate.

3. Political Factors: An unprecedented support for the market is Alan Greenspan. Rarely has an industry been so targeted for continued support as the residential market has been by the Federal Reserve. There is so much at stake in keeping the residential markets strong and prices up that the Federal Reserve has publicly stated that they will do everything in their power to keep rates from rising, even to the extent of buying long term treasuries and monetizing debt.

We have rarely seen this degree of intervention to keep a market going and we certainly don't see any change in this before the end of the fall elections in 2004.

4. Immigration: This is an enormous "prop" to the long term health of the real estate market and is of particular interest to Alan Greenspan. Studies by Fannie Mae show immigrants are more eager to buy a home than the average American. They save more for their down payment and are better qualified financially to buy.

They are critical to the New York market because they "unlock" the first time buyer market and allow real estate transactions to flow all the way up the chain. The $200,000 seller can sell and move up to the $400,000 apartment and the $400,000 seller can move up to a $650,000 apartment and so on up the chain. Today, we have record waves of immigration to America and those immigrants will support the market for the next 20 years."

5. Falling Dollar." Many people are concerned that a falling dollar will push up interest rates. But, there is a positive side to the falling dollar that helps all segments of the market, from the lower end to the luxury end ... and that is ... that American real estate is cheaper for foreigners to buy.

Today, Manhattan apartments are 20% cheaper for Europeans to buy than a year ago. Hawaii is 25% cheaper for Japanese to buy than a year ago. If the dollar falls 40% as many are predicting, Manhattan apartments will be dirt-cheap for foreign buyers and we can expect waves of foreign buying. Expect the condo market to benefit the most.

We are definitely gearing our company towards the international markets where Coldwell Banker is now in 20 countries from China to Singapore to France and to Israel.

And what about after 2004? Ask Alan Greenspan!