Posted May 7, 2009 - 12:50 by Xin Lu
Personal Finance, Deals, Real Estate and Housing
Amidst the financial crisis, many home builders around the country have run out of financing. Last week a bank decided to completely level 16 completed and partially built homes in Victorville, California because the builder defaulted on the project. While this is unfortunate, some bargain hunters were able to pick up some extremely cheap construction materials and home fixtures.
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Posted April 24, 2009 - 09:28 by Xin Lu
Personal Finance, Real Estate and Housing, Consumer Affairs
The Obama administration announced a foreclosure prevention and mortgage reduction program about two months ago, and as of April less than 1000 loans have been refinanced under the program. One of the reasons that this program is getting a slow start may be that banks are hesistant to work with struggling homeowners who are still making their payments. A recent Los Angeles Times article profiled a family who tried to negotiate with their servicer to no avail, and once they missed a payment the servicer opened negotiations. So if you were a struggling home owner should you skip a mortgage payment just to get a bank attention?
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Posted March 4, 2009 - 13:17 by Xin Lu
Personal Finance, Real Estate and Housing, Consumer Affairs
Today the Obama administration officially released the final details of the mortgage plan that was announced a few weeks ago. Here is a quick summary on what is in the plan and how homeowners can find out if they are eligible for a new loan.
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Posted December 4, 2008 - 11:44 by Xin Lu
Personal Finance, Real Estate and Housing, Consumer Affairs
It seems like everyday the folks in Washington are rolling out a new plan to fix our economy. The Federal Reserve is running out of room to cut their federal funds rate, so now the news reports that the Treasury is planning to forcibly cut mortgage interest rates to 4.5% on new mortgages. The details about the plan still remains unclear, but will this boost the sagging housing market? Also, how could this help you as a consumer?
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Posted October 27, 2008 - 04:24 by Philip Brewer
Personal Finance
The conventional reason for investing in the stock market--perhaps offered with a bit less confidence now that we're in the midst of a stock market crash--is, "It offers higher returns." But that gets us ahead of ourselves. We can learn a lot by taking a couple of steps back and looking first at our financial goals.
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Posted September 23, 2008 - 10:21 by Philip Brewer
Real Estate and Housing
Several times recently, Treasury Secretary Paulson (and many others) have claimed that the "root cause" of the current financial crisis is "the housing correction." This is completely wrong--and unless policy makers realize that it's completely wrong, they're not likely to make the right policy decisions.
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Posted September 3, 2008 - 12:58 by Xin Lu
Personal Finance, Real Estate and Housing, General Tips
It is currently a buyer's market for real estate in most of the United States and there are many ways a buyer could negotiate for a deal beyond getting a great price. Here are some of the concessions sellers are willing to make and some ideas for buyers at the negotiations table.
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Posted August 23, 2008 - 13:40 by Mary Webber
Real Estate and Housing
The homeowner wants to make the sale. The broker wants to make the commission. The lender wants to make the loan. It'd be nice to see all these folks made happy, but first... the appraisal. How does the appraisal process work? Get your appraisal questions answered by an expert with two decades of experience.
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Posted August 14, 2008 - 17:43 by Xin Lu
Personal Finance, Real Estate and Housing, General Tips
This week a story from The Detroit News reported that homes are being listed in Detroit for $1. One particular $1 home sold for cash after being on the market for 19 days. The buyer seems to have gotten the deal of a lifetime, but did she?
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Posted July 17, 2008 - 12:56 by Xin Lu
Personal Finance, Real Estate and Housing, Taxes
My husband said that when we do buy a house he wants to just buy it with cash so we can own it outright and in our way say "screw you" to the banks. I like that idea, but just like any financial decision, there are pros and cons to doing this.
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