Posted June 10, 2008 - 12:23 by Xin Lu
Are you able to walk to your daily necessities from where you live? Or do you drive everywhere? Discover how walkable your neighborhood is and see if you can use your car less.
Posted June 9, 2008 - 15:23 by Xin Lu
Recently, I read about a promotion from a home builder in San Diego where consumers could buy a 4000 square foot house for $1.6 million and get a smaller home by the developer valued at $400 thousand for free. This sounds like a fantastic deal, but I am always wary of anything labeled with "buy one get one free", and here is why.
Posted June 6, 2008 - 09:51 by Xin Lu
Yesterday I read a news item that stated the House and Senate are considering another tax benefit for homebuyers and homebuilders. The idea the House is considering is basically giving a tax credit of $7500 to people who have not owned a home in three years. In the Senate, the version of the bill gives buyers up to $7000 for purchasing a foreclosed home. It sounds like free money, right?
Posted May 30, 2008 - 00:59 by Xin Lu
This week the Justice Department reached an antitrust settlement with the National Association of Realtors that is meant to spur competition and bring down the standard 6% commission that comes with each real estate transaction. Basically, the NAR is no longer able to withhold the information on multiple listing services from discount online brokers such as Redfin and ZipRealty. Will consumers like us see a huge deduction in real estate transaction prices soon?
Posted May 14, 2008 - 22:54 by Xin Lu
At any port you can probably see hundreds to thousands of empty shipping containers just sitting around waiting to be loaded. In recent times these containers have not only transported goods across oceans but have also been transformed into energy efficient dwellings with some great design and ingenuity.
Posted May 6, 2008 - 15:32 by Xin Lu
For my entire life, I have never lived in a place bigger than 1400 square feet. The smallest dwelling I had was a studio less than 400 square feet which I shared with my parents. Because of my experience of living in small homes I think of anything over 2000 square feet as excessive for two to three residents. Today I want to highlight some of the reasons why I prefer smaller abodes.
Posted April 3, 2008 - 18:21 by Julie Rains
Ever met a rich idiot? I’ve known at least two. Not counting my telephone conversation with self-proclaimed Rich Idiot and multimillionaire Robert Shemin (author of “How come THAT idiot’s rich and I’m NOT?”), I’ve also shaken hands with a guy who impressed me with his simplicity and wealth. We met briefly in a parking lot before a company meeting: I was dressed in standard corporate attire; he wore a khaki jumpsuit with his first name (“Don”) stitched in red. A college dropout, Don had just purchased my employer, a food processor with an Ivy League grad as its chief executive and a Ph.D. at the helm of its largest subsidiary. So what do Robert and Don (#346 of Forbes’ The Richest Americans in 2005) have in common?
Posted March 18, 2008 - 13:01 by Xin Lu
I never knew that cities in America could file for bankruptcy until recently a Northern California city named Vallejo made the news for being on the edge of bankruptcy. So how does this happen, and what happens to a bankrupt city or municipality?
Posted March 13, 2008 - 15:31 by Catherine Shaffer
The truth is that rents sometimes do not cover the monthly costs of owning the rental home, so how is it that these real estate gurus make their money? A lot of people think that it must involve unfair tactics, such as buying investment property at below-market rates from gullible elderly people, but there can't possibly be enough gullible elderly people to keep the whole industry going.
Posted March 12, 2008 - 05:13 by Philip Brewer
You used to hear the term "land rich, cash poor" for people who owned valuable land but didn't have quite enough money to make ends meet. It's an expression that dates back to the days when property was the only kind of real wealth there was. It's kind of fallen out of fashion of late. But as property values keep falling, it's worth thinking about the ways in which land is wealth.
Have more to say? Join the discussions at Wise Bread's Finance and Frugality Forums.
© 2009
Wise Bread |
About |
Advertise |
Contact |
Forums | Financial Blogs | Login |
Subscribe
User Agreement |
Privacy Policy |
Copyright
A Killer Aces Media FairBlog™
Subscribe to all Wise Bread articles
All comments