Facts and statistics to help keep you up to date on the market. • Homeownership is strongly related to age and socioeconomic status. The average age of first-time home buyers is 32, according to the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH). Thirty percent of homeowners are under 31 years of age. Ownership peaks at [...]
Top Tips: Selling your home
As the Real Estate market continues to erode into 2008. The Fed is expected to cut rate again at their upcoming March meeting. This cut may raise hope to boost buyers to jump in for great mortgage rate. If you have to sell your property, this could be a good opportunity. Watch CNN’s Gerri Willis [...]
A Look at Economic Stimulus Package
What’s in the economic stimulus package being signed by President Bush. Tax rebates: At least $300 to almost everyone earning a paycheck, including low-income earners. Social Security recipients and disabled veterans making too little to pay income taxes would receive $300 checks as well, as long as they have at least $3,000 in income from [...]
President Bush Signs H.R. 5140, the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008
From the California Association of Realtors. February 13, 2008 PRESIDENT SIGNS $168 BILLION ECONOMIC STIMULUS BILL President Bush today signed off on the $168 billion stimulus package approved by Congress last week, which, in addition to tax rebates for millions of working Americans and business owners, includes a vital, but temporary increase in the conforming [...]
Mortgage Prepayment Made Easy: Own Your Home in Half the Time
Wealth without risk Here are some tips to help you manage your finances. Find out the benefits of Roth IRAs and why they can help you reduce the length of your mortgage and save for retirement. For most of homeowners, the principal portion of a mortgage payment is quite small. For example, our February mortgage [...]
Going Green 101: Resources for Your Family
From the Oprah show Going Green 101: What Your Family Can Do Today! Make saving our planet a part of your daily life with easy changes. Start today with help from these resources. Activism American Forests The average person is responsible for emitting 94 pounds of carbon dioxide every day. It takes four trees, which [...]
Save Money on Your Printing With GreenPrint
You ask yourself, how many time you print something from the Web browser or MS Word just for few pieces of information you need. Instead, you get several pages printed with unnecessary graphics, ads, blank page with few words, etc. GreenPrint is a simple utility that enables you to select what prints , what doesn’t. [...]
Fed Rate-Cut Winners and Losers
When the Federal Reserve meets and changes rates we all have questions: What does it mean to me? Will my mortgage rate go up or down? Is this a good time to refinance? Bankrate is here to help. We’ve looked at five categories — mortgages, home equity loans, auto loans, credit cards and certificates of [...]
Year-End Tax Tips: Maximizing Your Deductions
Last month, our good friends at Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine shared valuable tax tips to assist investors with maximizing profits. In this month’s feature, we turn our attention towards deductions that could save taxpayers a bundle. The secret to successful year-end planning is to think about taxes two years at a time – ’07 and [...]
Real Estate in 2008: What Does the Future Hold?
2007 was a historic year in the real estate and financial markets, thanks to the highly-publicized subprime collapse and subsequent credit crunch. As the end of the year approaches, we at YOU Magazine were wondering, what could possibly await us in 2008? With this in mind, we turned to mortgage industry icon Bill Dallas for [...]
