Articles related to: buying real estate
1: Buying Older Character Homes: What You Should Know About Lead Paint
For many home buyers the fabulous potential and charm in older character homes is well worth the time and effort that it can take to restore or renovate them; restoring or renovating older homes isn't..
2: Buying a Home on the Eve of Destruction: How to Live Comfortably in the Aftermath
I have been assured by multiple sources with increasing frequency over the past few years that modern society is teetering on the brink of collapse. I'm sure that most of you have heard some sort of v..
3: What Kind of House is Right for You?
It can be overwhelming when you start looking at homes once you've decided that you're in the market to buy. There are so many options out there that it can be hard to really know what you want or wha..
4: Something Old or Something New: Which Home is Right for You?
If you're getting ready to make a real estate purchase, you may be wondering whether it's a better deal to buy new construction or an older house. There are benefits and drawbacks to both types of pro..
5: The Appropriate Discount Rate for Residential Real Estate Analysis
The investment value of a property can only be measured against other investment opportunities available to an investor. If investors can earn 4.5% by investing in government treasuries, they will dem..
6: Residential Real Estate Investment Value - How Is It Calculated?
The United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics measures the rent of primary residence (rent) and Owners' equivalent rent of primary residence (rental equivalence). They make this dis..
7: Real Estate is the Major Religion in California
California has a major cultural "religion" that cuts across traditional denominational lines, the religion of real estate. Like any religion it requires faith. The religion of real estate requires bli..
8: If You Are Underwater but Can Afford the Mortgage Payment You Should Hang On
Anyone that can manage their payments should consider trying to hold on, even if the house value has dropped well below their purchase price. There are still a great many overextended homeowners and s..
9: Regulatory Solutions to Prevent the Next Housing Bubble
The regulatory solution proposed herein is simple, yet far reaching. It comes in two parts, the first is to limit the amount lenders can loan to borrowers with a rather unique enforcement mechanism, a..
10: Changing Appraisal Methods would Prevent the Next Housing Bubble
Investor confidence in the market for CDOs and all mortgages was shaken during the decline of the housing bubble, and rightly so. Investors were losing huge sums, and nobody clearly understood why. Th..
11: Housing Bubble Economic Problems - Have We Seen the Worst?
The foremost problem resulting from the deflation of the housing bubble was the imperilment of our banking and financial system. The bailouts emanating from Congress have mostly focused on keeping the..
12: How Will Real Estate Respond to the Stimulus
Ah, the million dollar question. According to the National Association of Realtors a few hundred thousand extra transactions will take place as a direct result of the real estate portion of the ..
13: Housing Bubble Causes - Why Did It Happen?
The housing bubble was caused by an expansion of credit that enabled irrational exuberance and wild speculation. The expansion of credit came in the form of relaxed loan underwriting terms including h..
14: In a Buyer's Market the First Offer is the Best Offer
The most counter-intuitive part of buying in a buyer's market is to make the first offer the best offer. Ordinarily sellers, or more accurately the seller's realtor, try to create a sense of urgency t..
15: What to Do When the Sale Price of a Home Does Not Pay Off a Mortgage
Once a price decline gets underway many buyers who were late to the price rally find they are in a property worth less than they paid for it. As prices continue to fall, many find themselves "underwat..
16: Buying and Selling Real Estate During a Decline
Residential real estate markets generally move very slowly and trend in a single direction for long periods of time. Once these markets reach an inflection point, the direction of price movement chang..
17: Unemployment and Residential Real Estate Markets
Prior to the housing bubble, house price declines had only been associated with economic downturns and increases in unemployment. As people lost jobs, they lost their ability to make house payments, a..
18: Housing Bubble Credit Expansion - Credit Inflated the Housing Bubble
The housing bubble was inflated by a massive expansion of credit and the influx of capital into residential mortgages. The expansion of credit took four forms: lower interest rates, lowering or elimin..
19: Mortgage Interest Rates and House Prices
Mortgage interest rates are determined in an open market and are subject to the forces of supply and demand. These rates are the sum of three main components: riskless rate of return, risk premium, an..
20: Speculative Equity - What Is It and How to Get It?
People who purchase real estate use the phrase "building equity" to describe the overall increase in equity over time. However, most people think in terms of capturing speculative equity, the equity g..
21: Get Answers Before Your Make an Offer on that House
You've found a property that has all the important items on your checklist. You've researched and done a comparative market analysis to determine a fair asking price. While you're well prepared to mak..
22: Renting Versus Owning Residential Real Estate
Renting versus owning is both an intellectual, financial decision and an emotional decision. The financial decision is first and foremost an analysis of the comparative cost of renting versus owning. ..
23: The Home Mortgage Interest Deduction is Widely Overestimated and Misunderstood
Debt subsidies, in particular the home mortgage interest deduction, are seen as a great benefit to home ownership. The benefit is widely overestimated and misunderstood.First, people fail to understan..
24: Bring Back Paternalism in the Mortgage Market
I do not like government paternalism. When Ronald Reagan came to power and began our 25 year experiment with government deregulation, I thought it was a good idea. It used to really annoy me when I wo..
25: Subprime Containment Theory Was a Lie
Conventional wisdom (or market spin) was that the risk of default from subprime would not spill over into Alt-A and Prime loans. This argument was made because these two categories have historically h..
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