Costs of New Homes Rise
Everyone has been predicting the real estate bubble bust but surprisingly the price of new homes is rising instead of falling. This number was shown in May and managed to surprise even those in the business.
The Commerce Department reported that sales of new single-family homes increased by 4.6 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.234 million units. The median price of homes sold did decline to $235,300, a drop of 4.3 percent from the April sales price.
Analysts are still looking for sales of both new and existing homes to fall by around 10 percent this year as rising mortgage rates crimp demand. The lowest mortgage rates in four decades helped to propel sales to five straight annual records.
The 4.6 percent increase in sales pushed the sales rate to the highest level since last December and followed increases of 5.9 percent in April and 7.3 percent in March. The previous months’ increases had been helped by unusually mild weather.
Google Expands…Into Real Estate
Google has announced that they will be purchasing over $300 million worth of property that is almost a million in square feet. They plan to expand Google Headquarters. Seems like a plan, if they ever go under at least they still have property they resell.
Foreclosure Scams Series 1-7
Foreclosure scams have unfortunately been around awhile and with new suckers (first time home owners) coming out everyday, so are the scammers. I just finished reading the last of a 7 part series that I thought I would share written by blogger Christi Lundquist.
- Foreclosure Scams: Part 1 of 7
- Foreclosure Scams: Part 2 of 7
- Foreclosure Scams: Part 3 of 7
- Foreclosure Scams: Part 4 of 7
- Foreclosure Scams: Part 5 of 7
- Foreclosure Scams: Part 6 of 7
- Foreclosure Scams: Part 7 of 7
The Housing Bubble Could Blow Very Soon
In a recent report Freddie Mac has been trying to soothe everyone and using words such as “orderly and moderate cooling”. Last I checked we were not talking about an apple pie. Carefully worded statements and a soothing tone will not calm down consumers and business men and women who stand to lose a lot of money if things keep going down hill in the real estate game.
Freddie Mac stated that it expects that gradually rising interest rates will “slacken” demand further and that home sales and construction will decline about 7 percent in 2006. This would, the report said, still result in the third best year ever for those figures, outstripped only by 2005 and 2004. Still, housing starts are expected to decline 16 percent on an annualized basis from 2.13 million units in the first quarter to 1.79 million in the forth quarter, averaging 1.93 million for the year. The May report had projected 1.93 million housing starts for 2007 but that projection quietly became 1.78 million in the June summary tables.
Best of Niner Niner June ‘06
Sreejith thinks that Snap is the future of Google.
Meanwhile over at Blogging Naked leafworks introduces us to sex magic Part I.
In Bookadoodle, Meg Stivison tells us about The Year of Pleasure, and the story of Shem Creek which left her giggling and sighing.
Boomer 2.0: Baby boomers want to dress just like us and get into the latest technology. If you can, then so can they.
Sony gives out free music and hey, Why was the NPS website shut down?
In Credit Cardenza, learn to protect your credit card, and don’t forget to give the tips to your one year old after he gets his own card.
Did you remember to get mommy this gorgeous polished rolo bracelet? Did you settle for something in the flowers and candy department? Or did you get her this Kodak EasyShare?
In Feed Money there was talk about the Google Traffic Diet while Tom Baurley gave us a guide to affiliate programs.
Sarah White posted a must-read to generation debt and hopefully that will keep you from falling into the pit of debt.
If you love playing games for money head on over to the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida but leave the gambling children at home.
Technology is coming to high heel near you so when your bored hopefully your flexible enough to watch the tv in your high heels and if criminals take notice show them your other shoes that come with high heel weaponry included.
Do you know if you medical records are being disclosed and do you understand your medical privacy?
Kathleen Milazzo asks the question: Could you be the next victim of diabetes? While also discussing seniors and their new drug plan.
You might own a coffee shop but don’t forget to offer tea because people love variety.
In Mortgage Updates you can learn how to toss out the middle man and offer a mortgage all by yourself.
If you’ve got the skills, you can learn how to build your own hydropower or get some ideas on building your own Mona Lisa.
If your in the mood to learn business, Sarah White takes a moment to let us in on her not so secret side biz.
There is a lot to learn if you want a healthy living and you can start with the dangers of diabetes before moving on to the healthy alternative of corn and don’t forget some great tasting healthy and low calorie recipes.
In On Movies, Meg Stivison refused to let the problem of finding english language movies stop her from giving a great review for the movie “The Prince and Me 2″.
Always keep an eye out for Ebay email fraud but keep the other eye out on ways you can sell stuff on Ebay for other people.
Rss Micro is the new kid in town when it comes to RSS search engines, while there pull up a search about getting listed with Yahoo.
The Diet Logs: If violent diarrhea isn’t something you’d like to have, remember to avoid white kidney beans, or at least learn how to cook them correctly.
If you live the Single Life try to find your relationship chemistry but do avoid the 7 types of jealousy.
Meg Stivison is pretty excited about the changes made to Wow, meanwhile Tom Baurley reminds us that we Don’t Know Jack and there is the Desperate Housewives video game. I still don’t know why they made it.
In Vegas Revealed, we see a couple that are endangered plus a grandmother won the biggest slots jackpot ever.
Meg Stivison is still not over the staring thing, I mean the grocery store? People keep an eye on your shopping carts. And if your going to wander the Earth don’t forget to take a pit stop at Aquariam of the America’s. Should be a sight to behold.
How Much House Can You Afford
That is just one of the articles that are available on this site. You can also find a realtor, get values on homes, learn about buying and selling a house and learn what you need to know about a mortgage and how to get one.
It is a loan guide for those who are confused about where to begin when buying their first home.
Insurance Doesn’t Cover You
It’s sad that you work hard, keep good credit and do everything right to get a home including keeping up with your mortgage and home insurance. Millions found out however after the very bad hurricane seasons of the last two years that at their discretion insurance companies can deny their claims.
It sickened me to watch a woman on the news in tears next to her no longer livable home say that HER insurance company says that her damage was water damage and she’s only covered for wind damage. Even though all the damaged houses around her all were considered wind damaged home. Like she says I guess the wind hit all the homes, split in two to avoid her home before reforming and continuing on it’s war path.
Even if the damage is water damage what she is saying is that her broken windows and other broken damage was from the wind throwing things at her home and through the windows, and of course after that followed the water.
But the companies are standing firm and refusing to pay up, crying poor us. I’m sorry but the reason to pay insurance is to be covered if and when something bad happens. And when you think of how much money in the hundreds you and other’s pay it’s a sad day when you cannot and will not get that money back when you need it. And for the ones who do get paid, they are lucky enough to get maybe $10,000 to cover $50,000 or even $100,000 and more. Lucky them.