Ruth and Rod

Everyone needs a place to call home sweet home. You have two options when choosing a new home: rent or buy.

The main difference between renting and buying is who gets your check– a landlord or the bank.
Weighing costs will be a big part of your decision, but there are other facts to consider.

Advantages of Home Ownership

Fact: Interest rates are still at 30 year historic lows.
Fact: Renting deprives you of large tax breaks.
Fact: A home is a leveraged investment using other people’s money.
Fact: Regardless of what you read or hear in the press, real estate has proven to be an [...] Continue Reading…

The long trend of Americans buying homes and expatriating to Mexico has collapsed, done in by the recession, swine flu and an epic crime wave.

Although the crime wave is confined to a fairly limited area, the perception of it has hurt markets all over the Mexico. In the high-crime communities close to the U.S. border, the drop has been steep. Still, that means deals for adventurous souls, even in safe traditionally expatriate neighborhoods.

Lovers of Mexico, regret that the entire country has been colored by the border wars. In places like Cabo or La Paz, owners and tourists are unaffected. [...] Continue Reading…

Home prices inched up 0.6% compared to February 2009 according to the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city index, with nine of the 20 cities showing gains.

“The homebuyer tax credit, available until the end of April, is the likely cause for these encouraging numbers,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P.

But home prices actually fell by 0.9% compared with January. The dip was small enough to put prices in positive territory compared with 12 months earlier, when home prices were falling very steeply.

Indeed, 18 cities saw month-over-month price declines in February and six cities, including New York, Las Vegas and [...] Continue Reading…

There may be a better way out.

There are numerous hardships that can turn home ownership from a joy into a burden. The loss of a job, medical bills, or an unexpected hike in monthly payments can all make a mortgage unaffordable. But ignoring the bills will not make them go away, it will only make things worse.

If you need help, there are approaches that can help, but you may not be familiar with them.
One of these is a “short sale.”

In an approved short sale, the lender agrees to accept less than is owed for the [...] Continue Reading…

Reasons For Professional Assistance

All real estate licensees are not the same. Only real estate licensees who are members of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® are properly called REALTORS®. They proudly display the REALTOR “®” logo on the business card or other marketing and sales literature. REALTORS® are committed to treat all parties to a transaction honestly. REALTORS® subscribe to a strict code of ethics and are expected to maintain a higher level of knowledge of the process of buying and selling real estate. An independent survey reports that 84% of home buyers would use the same REALTOR® again.

Real estate [...] Continue Reading…

The Basics:

As part of its plan to stimulate the U.S. housing market and address the economic challenges facing our nation, Congress has passed new legislation that:

* Extends the First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit of up to $8,000 to first-time home buyers until April 30, 2010.
* Expands the credit to grant up to $6,500 credit to current home owners purchasing a new or existing home between November 7, 2009 and April 30, 2010.

Here is more information about how the Extended Home Buyer Tax Credit can help prospective home buyers become part of [...] Continue Reading…