Archive for April, 2009
7 Gadgets To Consider On Mother’s Day Or Father Day’s
April 6th, 2009 categories: General
After attending the International Home and Housewares show, The Today Show filmed a 5-minute segment called “Housewares You Won’t Be Able To Live Without”.
The title is somewhat over-the-top but don’t let that turn you off. The gadgets reviewed are both practical and inexpensive. They include:
- Make-no-mess vegetable peeler
for the kitchen
- Efficient kabob tool
for the grill
- Grow-In-Your-Kitchen garden
that grows like an outdoor one
Of over 2,000 products at the show, NBC selected seven. Watch the video to see them in action.
Gadgets don’t improve a home’s value but they can make life easier sometimes. And for homeowners, easier is often better.
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By The Time You Read About Low Mortgage Rates, It Was Already Too Late To Get Them
April 3rd, 2009 categories: Buyers, General, Market Trends
Thursday morning, homeowners in different parts of the country awoke to find similar-sounding newspaper headlines:
- Rates on 30-year mortgages sink to 4.78%, a new low (LA Times)
- Mortgage rates at record low for 2nd week (Miami Herald)
- Mortgages hit another record low (San Francisco)
The underlying story was that Freddie Mac’s weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed the lowest, average 30-year fixed rate mortgage in its 38-year, rate-tracking history.
Once again, however, the headlines came too late for homeowners.
Prior to Thursday’s market open, mortgage markets had already worsened from their record-setting levels. Slowly at first, and then with momentum. The shift pressured rates higher so that when lenders issued their Thursday morning rate sheets, most showed an 1/8 increase from Wednesday’s close.
The negative momentum carried into the afternoon, too, forcing a second increase of an 1/8 percent.
The Freddie Mac survey may have been accurate when the sun came up Thursday, but by the time the sun went down, it wasn’t even close. It’s why you can’t do your rate shopping by watching newspaper headlines. Mortgage markets are volatile and rates often change without notice.
Thursday, they did it twice.
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Are Home Values Rising Or Falling? The Answer Depends On Who You Ask.
April 1st, 2009 categories: Buyers
A report published Tuesday showed that home values fell nearly 3 percent in January 2009 versus the month prior and by 19 percent from last year.
On the surface, data from the study looks like more bad news for housing. With deeper inspection, though, we uncover reasons to discount the report’s finding.
For one, the report includes home price data from just 20 cities around the country — and they’re not the 20 most populated cities, either.
For example, data from #4-ranked Houston is not included and neither is #7 San Antonio nor #10 San Jose. #54 Tampa, however, is included.
Secondly, the report is two months lagging.
Published March 31, its data is only accurate as of January and a lot has happened in the last 2 months. This includes a record-drop in interest rates and the introduction of an $8,000 tax credit for qualified first-time home buyers. The stimulus has helped raise home sales volume on both new homes and previously-owned ones.
And lastly, one more reason to question the relevance of the Case-Shiller report is that a government study on the same topic showed home values rising over the same period, not falling. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, home values grew 1.7 percent from December 2008 to January 2009.
In the end, home values are a local phenomenon that can’t be summarized as a national “summary”. National data can be helpful for watching longer-term trends, but it shouldn’t be used to make a “Buy or Not Buy” decision.
For that, talk with a real estate professional with access to local data instead.
Source
List of United States cities by population
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population
(Image source: LA Times)
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