C21AGVoices

The connection between the world’s political events and home affordability here at home is not always clear, but Russia’s invasion of Georgia provides a strong working lesson. Georgia is a former Soviet republic on the eastern shores of the Black Sea. Oil pipelines within its territory supply about 1 percent of the world’s daily oil […]

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Each month, the National Association of Realtors® releases a study called the Existing Home Sales report. It’s a detailed look at “used” home sales data from all four regions of the country. One of the key findings in each Existing Home Sales report is something called the “median sales price”, the statistical price point at […]

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Fannie Mae announced a new risk-based pricing model and additional mortgage delivery fees this week, adding to the cost of buying a home. Risk-based pricing was first introduced by Fannie Mae this past April. It added new, mandatory loan fees for high-risk borrowers while rewarding a small group of low-risk borrowers with fee credits. In the […]

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When home sellers accepts a contract on MLS-listed property, the property’s official status changes from “Active” to “Pending”. By measuring the number of “Pending” homes nationwide, the National Association of Realtors® publishes its once-monthly Pending Homes Sales Index. The real estate industry group positions the report as a predictor of future home sales activity, stating that […]

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Any plumber will tell you — toilets are among the least efficient appliances in a person’s home.  20 percent of them leak up to 200 gallons of water per day — the equivalent of an 80-minute shower. At an average cost of $2 per 1,000 gallons, the EPA estimates that homeowners literally flush $146 of water […]

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Conforming mortgage guidelines are the Home Loan Rule Book, delineating between applicants that approved for a mortgage and those that do not. Effective today, the rule book just got a little bit tougher. According to Fannie Mae, homeowners converting their primary residence into a second home or investment property will be subject to additional underwriting […]

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Monday, President Bush signed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 into law and the press jumped on the obvious storylines: First-time home buyers get a $7,500 purchase “credit” Conforming loan limits move to $625,000 Delinquent homeowners get a lifeline from the FHA Local governments get federal money for buying and restoring foreclosed homes […]

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Photo Courtesy of Creativecommons.org The President signed into law the Landmark housing legislation Wednesday. The law is designed to help the housing industry and the credit industry recover from the mortgage melt-down of the past year, and provide stability in the financial markets. Those portions of the bill are important, but some sections of the […]

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Every homeowner’s basic toolkit should include caulk, a sealing agent for sinks, bathtubs, windows and other places where seams exist. And now, with the mass-market availability of Caulk Singles, that toolkit can be made a bit smaller. Caulk Singles are a one-time-use caulk package, squeezable from the bottom-up and billed as easier-to-control and clean-up than […]

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The phrase “Consumer Price Index” can be intimidating and unclear to Americans. It’s an economic term, after all, and not a part of everyday American language. It even has its own abbreviation to add to the confusion — CPI. So, when a layperson hears that “CPI is rising”, it’s not always clear what it means. […]

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