City Properties Journal

If you live in Paris, London, New York or Singapore, you’re probably feeling the high cost of living in these key cities. According the an article in the Global Property Guide: Most Expensive Cities In 2008, these cities have some of the most expensive apartments & condos. Because of these highly urbanized communities, space is a premium in these locations. This makes the apartment and condos the dwelling of choice for its lucky inhabitants.

Of course, there are certain advantages to living in places like Barcelona, Hong Kong, Tokyo or Shanghai. These cities are, after all, the center of commerce, government and leisure. These are the hub of cultural and political activity. These areas are also the site of rapid urbanization and economic development.

If you’re lucky enough to already own a property in one of these areas, hold on to it. You can even make pretty good money renting it out.

Image source:www.ronsaari.com
The American Dream Down Payment Act authorizes $200 million in grant aid for each of the coming four years to low-income, first-time home buyers. It certainly is a dream come true for many people who have harbored the fantasy of buying a home but were not able to get the cash for it.It is a joint government and banking program to help people put together that initial down payment which is crucial in buying a home. Such ventures also uplift the economy of the country, when loans are more accessible to people and first time home buyers.

Interest rates are hitting an all-time low, and assistance professionals are urging you to come forward and avail of this opportunity. Not only do these grants help in that down payment, but also are tremendously useful when closing the mortgage. The sooner you pay it off, the better. Even bad credit doesn’t go against you if you are a first-time home buyer, in the sense that you haven?t had housing ownership in your name within the last three years.

This year, magazines CountryHome and Popular Science  came out with separate lists of the greenest cities in America. While rankings differ because of criteria, there are notable cities which make appearances on both lists, testament to their commitment to becoming environment-friendly cities. Making the top 20 in both rankings are  Portland, Oregon; Santa Rosa, California; Eugene, Oregon; Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota; San Francisco, California; and Seattle, Washington.

Popular Science based their results on data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Geographic Society Green Guide, and had 30 categories in total, including air quality, electricity and transportation habits, green living and recycling. Country Home looked at official energy policies, electricity, green buildings, and local food sourcing.

Every three years, leading experts and researchers on sustainable building gather for the Sustainable Building Conference in Melbourne to look for connected, viable and livable built environments and communities. How will this affect the average homeowner? Not directly now, but the innovations and studies to be presented over five days in September will influence policy globally. Or so we hope. The international panel of speakers gives a more global outlook to the conference. SB08 strives to be carbon neutral, with ‘zero net greenhouse emissions’ as its goal throughout the entire conference. That’s a good start if they also take into account the amazing pre-conference tours.

The Texas Solar Energy Society invites you to cool houses in Austin on Sunday, June 22nd, from noon until 6pm. The eighteen sites that are part of the tour are models in energy efficiency and green building practices. A variety of homes using combinations of solar energy, rainwater collection systems, green building materials, energy-saving climate control, and water-saving techniques will be open to visitors. To join the tour, purchase the guidebook online or from the Austin Central Market (starting June 1st). The guidebooks contain directions and the features of each site. Visitors also get the chance to talk to the designers, builders and owners of these homes.

In Portland, the property tax has substantially risen as compared to the previous years which are attributed to the Urban Renewal program in the City of Portland. Compared to last year’s statistics, there was a 14.72 percent increase in the property tax of the city.

During recent years, the share of the urban renewal in the city budget has been steadily increasing from 18.9 percent three years ago to where it stands now at 22.24 percent of the property tax levy which is very close to the 23.06 percent allocation for fire and police pension. With 45.3 percent of the property tax collection going to urban renewal and pension for fire and police, roughly 55 percent is left for other services.

According to the Sioux City Journal, Gary Floyd would like to establish a common sense approach to the City Government by focusing on city services delivery and the lowering of taxes on property of citizens specially the small business owners and the retail workers.

Floyd said that although he supported the lowering of property taxes paid to the city, he does not want to see a reduction in the budget allocation for the fire and police departments. Two thirds of the city’s property tax budget is concentrated on the fire and police departments. He believes that he can accomplish a reduction of property tax rates without sacrificing the coverage of city services.