April 2007
Monthly Archive
16 Apr 2007 06:58 am
Looking to Sell? Will a ton of new houses hurt your chances?
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Even though builders have cut back on the number of new homes they’re starting, they are finding themselves saddled with an unusually large inventory of finished or nearly finished homes. Those empty houses are expensive for builders to carry, thanks to construction loans that won’t be paid off until the home is sold. So builders are getting serious about unloading them. Why should you care? Because if you are thinking about selling your house, new-home builders are your competition. And if you are thinking about buying a house, you should be aware of what is out there. |
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search for : construction loan, selling your house
15 Apr 2007 06:32 am
Your Homes and appliances are supersized for a reason
| The things inside our homes are getting bigger, as a trip to an appliance store will quickly confirm. Like those colossal baby carriages, appliances are being pumped up to SUV-like proportions. Many washing machines and dryers, for example, are now raised up on huge pedestals for “convenience,” not to mention being slathered with enough fake chrome to shame a Lincoln Navigator owner. The typical wall oven, which used to be made in a modest standard width of 24 inches, has been incrementally larded up to 27 inches and now 30 inches. Presumably, this is necessary because turkeys are now 25 percent larger. And where single ovens were once widely thought to be up to most baking tasks — my father is still happy with his, and he’s a professional baker — nowadays double ovens are considered de rigeur. |
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search for : Lincoln Navigator, wall oven, double oven
14 Apr 2007 08:05 am
Your New Home, Starting With an Empty Lot
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Why buy a house when you can build one? At first, that didn’t occur to Keith Strand. After all, who builds a house in Manhattan? But when he could find no affordable houses to renovate, he did what an architect would do. He abandoned the hunt for a house and instead went looking for a plot of land to build on. Mr. Strand, 53, who grew up in Colorado Springs, first came to New York in the 1970s with the group Volunteers in Service to America to work on Bronx housing projects. |
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search for : affordable house
13 Apr 2007 06:30 am
Fence Line Dispute Makes For Angry Neighbors
| Property line issues have suddenly cropped up in the emails I’ve received in the past few weeks. It appears that homeowners are more aware of their property lines (specifically if a neighbor is violating it) during the spring and summer months than at other times. As we get out there and trim limbs (from the neighbor’s big oak tree), mend the fence (which is actually the neighbor’s), and try to clean up unsightly encroachments on the line, we become aware that the guy next door hasn’t kept up with his property and now the problem is personal. Keeping up with local fence laws, good neighbor regulations, even your local home owners’ association rules can keep relations between you and your neighbors a lot more healthy. |
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search for : Property line issues, property lines, good neighbor regulations
12 Apr 2007 07:54 am
First-time renters need good advice
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Are you leaving the nest and becoming a first-time renter? He’ll have lots of company. According to the 2005 U.S. Census Community Survey, more than 36 million rental units are rented out in the United States. That’s a lot of first-time renters who have found a place to call home. Leaving home to become a tenant is a big step towards adult responsibility. For many, it’s the first time their behavior impacts permanently on the future — from credit and personal reference history to negative legal possibilities. What do landlords look for? “I like to meet the parents,” explains Jim Stilton, who manages more than 500 units in Los Angeles. “Meeting the parents gives me a sense of their involvement and responsibility.” |
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search for : first-time renter
11 Apr 2007 08:15 am
Risky loans - alive and well
| Losses in loans made to the riskiest borrowers have raised fears that lenders would cease making many of the exotic loans that have become popular over the past few years. Nearly 40 percent of all loans made in 2006 fell into the subprime or Alt-A category. Like most mortgages, Alt-A loans are sold by lenders to Wall Street investments banks, which package those loans into bonds called mortgage-backed securities. Mortgage-backed bonds are then sold to investors. Bonds based on he Alt-A loans are potentially riskier because in many cases borrowers do not prove their income, or have very little invested in their house. |
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search for : exotic loans, subprime, Alt-A category
10 Apr 2007 08:16 am
Real Estate and Baby Boomers, A Profitable Mix
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“The 55+ market is becoming an increasingly important focus of the nation’s housing industry as members of the baby boom approach the traditional retirement years,” says the National Association of Home Builders. “But builders hoping to entice households into new homes may find the going tough because older Americans, by and large, are happy with where they currently live.” Those above age 55 — an age which hardly seems ancient — play an important role the real estate. As people age they tend to earn more (because they’ve built up their business and job experience over time) and owe less (because their mortgage has been paid down or paid off and the children have finished school). |
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search for : baby boom
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