City Properties Journal

When searching for a home, you should not buy the most expensive in the block, but instead buy “beater” homes. For example, in homes costing $300,000, you can probably get a cosmetically unattractive home for low price of $230,000. Then with a little improvement like landscaping for $1,000, painting for $5,000, and fixing cracks for $10,000, you already have a $300,000 home value, which you have only paid for $246,000 including improvements.

Words of caution though, buy the house only if the problems are cosmetic. If the home has foundation problems or termite problems, it is not worth it to repair those because it will cost a lot of money.

Many believe that Baja, California is the next big boom in real estate. It is located at the northern most tip of Mexico, and also known as “lower California.” It has round year toasty weather and low cost living conditions. It is also easily accessible by land, air and water.

Residents are just a half hour away from the US border, yet it is one of the rare places where you can enjoy a perfect beach front. The place is famous for miles upon miles of fine white sand. It also offers some of the best fishing areas in the region.

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.

Malls collapsing cannot be a good sign and it isn’t looking good for the many distressed commercial properties that dot metro areas. It also gives clues to the overall health of the consumer’s buying will power, that seems to be on hold at the moment. These malls have been suffering well before the markets collapsed, victims of less consumer spending as people saved as much as they could when the financial market collapse became apparent. Most of these malls close due to huge debts, accumulated from previous years as their owners buffered their properties hoping the economy was going to get better, it didn’t and there was nothing else they could do more that close shop.

Financial institutions are very much cautious of the current economic conditions, though they are getting a lot of business from people who are opting to get new mortgages on new homes or refinancing their existing mortgage due to the very high default rate. A figure of around 62% is alarming indeed for it shows that people are still not getting enough cash to promptly settle their monthly payments. This can lead to another housing market crisis with more properties that could have been saved, again ending up on the chopping block, for sale or lease, hopefully fr good. The pain of people will be lasting a bit longer, a few years to be exact for recovery and full market turn around is predicted to come this 2012 (2 years or so in the future!).

Properties sell and they sell really good, especially when prices have almost been halved or a mere fraction of the first time they were listed for sale. This is a common case in today’s fragile housing market that has been utterly un-natural in terms of trending and predictions, breaking them all rendering them quite useless.
People have long been seeking better process for their homes have lost hope of getting the best deals they can whether selling or buying. It seems we’ll simply have to await the end to the unstable market conditions that have all but broken previous trending information that says it would be a short wait.

As evident in the growing website foreclosure.com, the sheer number of properties that have suffered foreclosures have grown and are still on the rise due to the economic crisis we are all being subjected to. Though many are really good finds, the many scam around makes it a bit risky and many other factors that may be affecting the industry and your selected property belies their outside beauty. Read the rest of this entry »

Green homes are becoming the next best thing to our ordinary homes which are slowly being replaced by new developments all over the place and in spite of the recession, people say they are willing to spend a bit more for greener products that impact the environment less. New homes are being built with the latest recycling technologies and more people are demanding nothing less in their new homes. America is now called the thrifty country but people will continue to chose better products that are green and recyclable.
Known for pioneering building technologies, the US is making these Read the rest of this entry »

The devastation that hurricane Katrina left behind is still being felt to this day and much of what man has built in the coastal areas of New Orleans were erased from memory by one strong storm. In fact, the hurricane was quite strong but the most damage came from the storm surge which caused levies to burst and overflowed, leaving much of the city in ruins. New technologies that have been developed to withstand such events are being showcased that have been undergoing testing and will be available to the public as soon as costs are brought down to more realistic levels. These homes are constructed on two levels Read the rest of this entry »

Depending on your needs, buying or renting a home each has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Buying your own home is generally thought of to be the more advantageous choice, as you have more freedom with a home and are not subject to the pressures of paying for the rent and whatnot. Owning a house also gives off a sense of pride – which is not undeserved – as owning a home gives one a sense of accomplishment. The value of a house also usually increases over time, as long as the real estate market normalizes and you take good care of your property. Renting, on the other hand, is best for people who are not comfortable settling down somewhere – especially singles who will have to move to a bigger place when they get married and have a party. Renting also saves one of the concern regarding repairs and maintenance.