Home Staging Key to Recovery of Housing Market

February 11th, 2010 4:17 AM

Financial Compatibility a Must for Many of Today’s Couples

February 17th, 2010 8:14 AM

RISMEDIA, February 16, 2010—(MCT)-One possible reason he’s just not that into you: Your weak credit score. One-third of people said they’d wait to marry someone until that person’s credit score improved, according to a recent survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, commissioned by PayPal.

More than one-third of those who were surveyed said they would consider not marrying or moving in with someone unless he or she “makes a fair amount of money.” And 65% said they wouldn’t want to date someone with significant debt.

“So many younger people have experienced difficulty with credit in the last year than they did before,” said Hillary Mendelsohn, money spending expert for PayPal. As people become more conscious of their money-related issues, they are also more likely to be on the prowl for people who have their own financial books in order.

That’s probably not a bad idea. In general, for married couples, financial stresses lead to marital stresses, said Lou Scatigna, certified financial planner and author of The Financial Physician. “Let’s face it: Finances are extremely important,” he said. They determine “how you eat, where you live, what you do, whether you travel, whether you have entertainment.” It’s highly likely that a diligent saver and a credit junkie are going to have a bumpy road ahead of them if they decide to marry—and attitudes about money are often engrained in people’s personalities and difficult to change, Scatigna said. “Romantics will say you can’t let money affect love, but the marriage would be doomed if you’re not on the same financial page,” he said. “Rarely does the marriage last when you have financial opposites.”

Additional findings from PayPal’s “Can’t Buy Me Love” survey:
-Money and finances are the number one reason participants said they argued with their significant other.
-45% of couples fight at least once a month about finances, and for those “traumatized by the current economy,” the arguments are more frequent.
-42% feel that someone in their relationship is spending too much money.
-11% of participants have been on one end of a breakup caused by debts.

Before tying the knot
Mendelsohn said that couples could save themselves some heartache if they have a heart-to-heart about finances before things get too serious. “If someone has a totally different attitude about money, that’s a flag of how it’s going to be in the rest of the relationship. You have to assess whether it’s something you want to live with long term,” she said. “What you see is usually what you get.”

But judging someone by his or her credit score isn’t the best way to determine a person’s attitudes about finances, Scatigna said. That may be especially true in today’s economy, when more people have foreclosures on their financial records or have fallen behind on bills due to a loss of employment. Instead of fixating on a number, focus on the person’s daily financial behavior, he said. Do they blow money? Do they buy things they can’t afford? Do they gamble? Are they long-term oriented in the way they think about money? Just by virtue of spending time with someone, you’ll also pick up on whether the person is extremely generous or notoriously stingy—and if that attitude jibes with your own.

And if your love interest is currently unemployed, pay special attention to their level of effort in finding a new position, Mendelsohn said. “There are so many people in that situation. Now, the attractiveness is how you’re going to handle it,” she said. Those determined and actively committed to finding a new job will create a lot more respect and admiration than those who behave like a victim.

Making it work
Regardless of whether you share bank or credit accounts, Scatigna says married couples should sit down with their bills and investment statements each month to discuss them and come up with ways to improve their finances. They also might discuss if they’re saving enough, as well as what they should be socking away for college or retirement.

(c) 2010, MarketWatch.com Inc.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

How to Budget for Home Maintenance

February 13th, 2010 6:00 AM

Foreclosures Take Heavy Toll on Hearts and Minds

February 7th, 2010 5:34 AM

RISMEDIA, February 4, 2010—(MCT)—Ethelda Lopez, a retired telephone company worker recently watched as her dream retirement home was auctioned off on the lawn outside a county courthouse in downtown Merced, California. “When I heard my address, it was so disheartening,” she said. “It’s amazing how it all works.”

For six months, she had made hundreds of calls to her mortgage company, federal officials, local political leaders—begging them all for lower payments or more time. No one paid heed. Wracked with depression and anxiety, she was too ashamed to tell her friends that she was losing her sprawling stucco-and-stone ranch home in the Atwater countryside.

Merced County ranked first in California for foreclosure filings in 2009, and sixth among counties nationwide, the national firm RealtyTrac reported recently. One in seven homes in this county of 250,000 people has been foreclosed on since September 2006, according to Foreclosure Radar, a California reporting service.

Over and over, residents caught up in the foreclosure crisis—homeowners, renters, even Realtors—report that they are suffering from stress or depression and are sometimes too ashamed to reach out for help. This is the hidden human fallout of foreclosure.

Thousands of new homes like Lopez’s sprouted from farmland countywide in the past five years. Merced was gearing up for a bright new future as a college hub. Optimistic developers dreamt of throngs of buyers paying $300,000 and more so that they could raise their children in neat stucco homes along tranquil cul-de-sacs. But the dream crumbled, and so did the peace-of-mind that home ownership is supposed to guarantee. Now, many homeowners are caught up in a nightmare, trying to figure out how to pay mortgages on dwellings worth a fraction of what they owe—or whether they should give up the dream and move on.

The drama plays out on the courthouse lawn like clockwork, Monday through Friday, at 12:30 and 3 p.m., when Realtors and investors bid for foreclosed homes like Lopez’s. The crisis shows no signs of abating. In November 2009, one in five Merced County homeowners was 90 days or more delinquent in payments, according to another service, First American CoreLogic. What the statistics don’t show is the human toll. Debt-wracked residents are suffering from anxiety, sleeplessness and depression in a universe gone sideways. Clinically, their suffering may not qualify as PTSD, the psychological state felt by soldiers, cops, first-responders and others after a traumatic experience. But far too many are in sad shape. Some are reaching out for help. At Merced-area health care clinics, workers report an increase in residents experiencing mental distress, and in the seriousness of their symptoms. Many new patients are homeowners or renters fearful of losing their homes and all the stability that a home provides, they say.

Many more feel so much shame about their financial and emotional distress that they shut themselves off, too fearful to ask for help. Entire families suffer as stress radiates from debt-plagued parents to their frightened children. “The trickle-down of this is big. Kids have stomach aches. They don’t want to go to school. Then you find out they’ve just moved in with someone else, their parents are about to lose their homes, they’re having trouble paying the mortgage,” said Elizabeth Morrison, clinical director of behavioral health at Golden Valley Health Centers, a network of 25 nonprofit community clinics and eight dental sites serving the Merced area.

School leaders are concerned, too. In the Merced Union High School District, which covers students in all of Merced, Atwater and Livingston, 613 students, or 7%, reported this year that they were “doubled-up” with another family in a single-family home. At Atwater High School, the number was 12%. Some residents fear they soon will have no home at all.

For residents on the verge of losing their homes, knowing that their neighbors and friends are in the same straits may or may not be reassuring. The stigma of foreclosure and bankruptcy may sting less here because so many people are struggling. But jobs remain scarce, and that, coupled with the high foreclosure rate, may make residents even more pessimistic, said Jim McDiarmid, director of behavioral sciences at the Mercy family medical residency program.

3 Factors to Take Into Consideration Before Jumping Into Housing Market

February 6th, 2010 8:37 AM

RISMEDIA, February 6, 2010—(MCT)—If you have a good job and good credit, the next few months might be a good time to go house hunting. Fence-sitters take the risk that Congress may let a rich tax credit expire, and that interest rates may rise. Buyers and sellers should consider the following factors as they consider jumping into the housing market.

-Mortgage rates are blissfully low, and that may not last. The rate on a 30-year mortgage averaged 5% last week, according to Freddie Mac. Rates are low in part because the Federal Reserve has been buying up about $3 trillion in mortgage-backed securities and mortgage agency debt. The aim is to hold down interest rates and keep mortgages available. But the Fed is slowly removing that financial crutch as the economy improves. It has no plans to buy any more past March 30, 2010. The likely result is an uptick in rates. Meanwhile, the recovering economy by itself should raise rates as the year goes on. Economists at the Mortgage Bankers Association expect to see a 6.1% rate by year end. Such a rise would add about $104 to the monthly payment on a $150,000 mortgage

-The home buyer tax credit expires on April 30, 2010 and no one knows if Congress will renew it a second time. Expect a clash between the real estate lobby and fiscal conservatives worried about the $1.35 trillion federal deficit. To qualify for the credit, you must sign a purchase contract by April 30, 2010 and close by July 1, 2010. First-time buyers get up to $8,000. “First-time” is defined as someone who hasn’t owned a home in three years. Move-up buyers get up to $6,500 when they purchase a new primary residence. To get the credit, you have to have lived in the old home for at least five out of the last eight years. The credits start phasing out at $125,000 in adjusted gross income for singles and $225,000 for joint filers.

-There are indications that home prices are near a bottom in some areas and may actually be rising a bit. That statement is dicey, because conditions vary by neighborhood and the data can be tricky.

Things might look different if you’re a seller though. Do you want to put your house on the market near the bottom of a price cycle? Homeowners who have a choice in the matter—those who can still pay their mortgages—are largely saying no. Inventories of homes for sale are down about 10% from this time last year, and 30% from the mid-decade peak of the housing boom, says Kevin Cottrell, chief economist at Kelsey Cottrell Realty Group. On the other hand, if you’re planning to move up to something grander, you might find a bigger bargain when you buy. And that $6,500 tax credit could swing a close decision.

Home sales peaked in some areas October and November, as buyers raced the expiration date of the original first-time home buyer’s credit. Congress later extended and expanded it. That rush satisfied some pent-up demand, but real estate agents are hoping for another rush around April. “People will wait to the very last second,” said Mike Travaglini, a vice president of Coldwell Banker Gundaker’s office in south St. Louis County.

Mortgage lenders have been tightening credit standards, which means fewer eligible buyers, says John Frank, president of Paramount Mortgage in Creve Coeur. Mo. “It’s getting tighter and tighter,” he said.

Lenders are insisting on credit scores of 640 to 660 for loans sold to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and 620 for FHA guaranteed loans. Those standards are higher than the federal agencies themselves insist on. FHA—which guarantees loans for people with low down-payments—has been raising its own insurance charges to borrowers and demanding higher premiums from people with poor credit scores.

(c) 2010, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

6 Tax Tips for Real Estate Owners and Investors

February 2nd, 2010 8:26 AM

Type the characters you see in this picture, click "Submit" when finished.

		This helps us prevent automated programs from creating bogus contacts and adding them to your contacts database.