Home Buying and Home Selling News Archive of October 2007

Not All Is Gloomy in Real Estate: A Blog Network Attracts Capital
New York Times - United States
By DAN MITCHELL The residential real estate market may be troubled, but property-focused Web sites are still attracting visitors and investors. ...

How to home in on a price range
Dallas Morning News - Dallas,TX,USA
WASHINGTON – One of the trickiest, and most important, parts of selling or buying a home is deciding how much it is worth. That has never been an easy task, ...

Making good on a bad real estate bet
CNNMoney.com - USA
How one family got caught up in the real estate bubble and what they can do to get back on the fast track. From Money Magazine By Yuval Rosenberg, ...

The risky realities of selling without a realtor
Howard University The District Chronicles (subscription) - Washington,DC,USA
Today's real estate agents generally do more than list your house for sale. They can provide crucial advice in getting it ready to sell for top dollar. ...

Home buying traps to avoid
Edmond Sun - OK,USA
Don't allow anyone to rush you into buying a home until you know you're ready. It's easy to get into the home buying mode when key friends or relatives are ...

Real Estate Isn't For Day Traders
Seattle Post Intelligencer - USA
Since that day I have lived and worked in real estate in this market for over 30 years. The common trend of those years is that there have been market ...

Home Buying Still in the Cards for Many Self-Employed Americans
PR Web (press release) - Ferndale,WA,USA
"With some care and planning, buying a home is still in the cards for most self-employed Americans," Stroh said. "Reaching the American dream just might ...

Tips on selling your home in a slow market
Consumer Reports - USA
A house may sell for $300000, but if the owner gave a 3 percent credit for deck repair and a new furnace, that'sa $12000 reduction. ...

Rising interest rates rattling European real estate sector - S&P
CNNMoney.com - USA
The rating agency said main concerns for the sector are sustainability of current exceptionally high real estate asset prices and the perceived lack of ...

Board reports fewer real estate agents in county
MLive.com - MI,USA
In yet another sign of the challenging housing market, there are more than 100 fewer real estate agents in Washtenaw ...

Home sales dip, prices slowing
Salt Lake Tribune - United States
Median selling prices, which had been increasing in many areas along the Wasatch Front in excess of 20 percent in 2006 when compared with 2005, ...

You'll need more cash up front to buy a house
BloggingStocks - USA
The days of $0 down are gone and you may find that you need to put as much as 15% down to buy a house in the hardest-hit states including Arizona, ...

Modern home look improves appeal inside and out
Bloomington Pantagraph - IL, USA
The worst time of the year to sell a house is from Thanksgiving through Christmas, Fish said. Her sales in that one month are down 45 to 50 percent. ...

Buying college student a home can save costs
Seattle Post Intelligencer - USA
Few parents think of buying a home with their student instead of for them. But that choice has benefits, according to real estate lawyer Andy Sirkin. ...

America's Richest Real Estate Billionaires
Forbes - NY,USA
After all, becoming one of the country's richest real estate investors seems to demand a certain type of proactive, ambitious and unwavering individual. ...

YouTube, TV help home sales in slow market
Arizona Republic - Phoenix,AZ,USA
"This distinguishes their listing and helps sell the home," he said. Buchli said she became a real estate agent near the end of 2005, when the market began ...

Second-home buying abroad slows down
Mortage 101 - USA
After years of only positive appreciation, I'm seeing people go back to sitting on the fence when it comes to buying in Latin America. ...

Paulson: Subprime help needed - no bailout
CNNMoney.com - USA
They are aimed at increasing home-buying opportunities for low- and moderate-income Americans. Changes in laws and regulations on mortgage borrowing was ...

Home sellers finding crowded market in Seattle
KING5.com - Seattle,WA,USA
By ROBERTA ROMERO / KING 5 News SEATTLE - Selling a home in the Seattle area has become tricker. What used to sell in one week can now take months. ...

Real estate: Anchorage is not as chilly as you might imagine
USA Today - USA
National real estate trends seem to take a while to get to Alaska. A decline in home sales in Anchorage wasn't particularly evident until spring, ...

Housing Counsel: Selling Your Home May Be Tax Free
Realty Times - TX,USA
You can also get some helpful information from IRS Publication 523, entitled "Selling Your Home -- for use in Preparing 2006 returns. ...

Housing Market Begins To Settle Down
Realty Times - TX,USA
For more information on these and many other topics about buying a home, selling a home, or choosing a Realtor, please visit Realty Times at ...

Mortgage landscape changing
Minneapolis Star Tribune (subscription) - Minneapolis,MN,USA
What: A Community Home Buyer loan that has no income limits. Good for: Borrowers with a higher income who need 100 percent financing/zero percent down. ...

You Paid What for That House?
ABC News - USA
A troubled real estate market in Manteca, Calif., has forced a town to resort to gimmicks to sell homes, including big one-day sales, much like the ones at ...

Long slump in housing cuts ranks of real estate agents
Atlanta Journal Constitution - GA, USA
The nation's slumping housing market didn't dissuade Jessica Gaines from jumping into her new career as a real estate agent. ...

Home builders trying to design a comeback
Atlanta Journal Constitution - GA, USA
Among other things, this approach puts a premium home-buying experience within the reach of buyers on a modest budget, Marlette said. ...

Blacks buying in home slump
Baltimore Sun - United States
Their report uses federal data on first-lien mortgages for home purchases. The groups want to help increase minority home-buying, but "we want to do it the ...

Purchasing a home may be easier than you think
C&G Newspapers - Detroit,MI,USA
The next step is to not only identify your long-term financial goals and make a home-buying savings plan, but to stick to it. ...

Stage your home for quicker sale
Comox Valley Record - Courtenay,British Columbia,Canada
PHOTO by kevin mckinnon By Kevin McKinnon If you're thinking about selling your home, or it has been on the market for a while with no results, ...

When Not To Buy A Home
CBS News - New York City,NY,USA
(CBS) How many times have you heard that buying a home is the best investment you can make? That's financial author and radio host Dave Ramsey popping the ...

Real estate bubble hasn't burst in NYC
Newsday - Long Island,NY,USA
Whether it was square footage or median prices, the housing bubble has not burst for Manhattan as it has for the rest of the region, according to third-quarter reports compiled separately by three big-name real estate firms ...

Pending home sales at record low
CNNMoney.com - USA
Numerous mortgage lenders pulled back from the market in August as they had trouble selling securities backed by mortgages on the secondary market. ...

US house sales data worse than expected
Euronews.net - Lyon,France
Analysts say sellers will have to trim their prices if they want to sell, and for those forced to sell because they cannot keep up with repayments, ...

Here's a new one: Being too broke to sell
Chicago Tribune - United States
Most anybody in the mortgage business will tell you that August was a month that will live in infamy: The market was in turmoil, as doubts about the stability of subprime loans spread to other sectors of the mortgage world ...

Owners face selling at a loss now that the housing bubble has burst
San Francisco Chronicle - CA, USA
But getting would-be buyers in the door is the hardest part, given the current state of the mortgage market, eroding home prices and the historic seasonal sales slump. The Bellomos, like many home sellers in the region, are more than motivated. They're resigned to losing money on their homes in exchange for selling ...

High-dollar homes take longer to sell
Sioux Falls Argus Leader - Sioux Falls,SD,USA
Pricier homes in Sioux Falls aren't selling as quickly as they once did, partly because there are so many larger homes available, industry experts say. And at least one event that features bigger homes has been canceled for the second year in a row ...

The Foreclosure Pickings Are Plentiful but Not Easy
New York Times - United States
WITH home foreclosures on the rise, buying a property in default may seem a sure route to profit or, at least, a cheap way to get a home. It can be. But it is not an endeavor for the shallow of checkbook or faint of heart ...