Category — News

ASSOCIATED PRESS ONLINE ARTICLE lists five cheap ways to increase your home’s value.  Paint, maintenance inspection list, Energy Saver Appliances with rebates, and landscaping provide 2 to 500% return in value for each dollar expended.  Read the whole thing.  For a few hundred dollars you can add thousands of dollars to the value of your home.

But don’t wait until you’re ready to sell!  Enjoy cheap home upgrades yourself!

Build your assets: subscribe to Realestateblocks.com!

I WOULD NOT SAY THIS IS IMPORTANT, but I was reading this post at Future of Real Estate which states that real estate agents are overwhelmingly Democrats. Contained in the post was a link to Fundrace where anyone can find out just which one of your neighbors is donating to each candidate. Real estate professionals, 3,430 of them, donated $5.3 million to Republican candidates, and 2,926 $4.7 million to Democrats. Agents are Republicans by a slight margin.

Interesting….

I’m the only small “d” democrat, Libertarian, in my neighborhood!

Subscribe to Realestateblocks.com!

SPIKE IN GAS PRICES OVER $5 will have an impact on real estate prices.

Why is crude oil price spiking?  Fox Business New is reporting crude prices have climbed $8 a barrel to $137 in the last half hour.  No one in the G-7 or media seems to know why.

Here are several possibilities: most of them relate to Iran.

1. Iran is hording oil by filling crude tankers and anchoring them in the Persian Gulf.  There is now over 21 million barrels floating in the Gulf.  Iran is driving the price up.

2. There is a possibility of air strikes against Iran by Israel (with US approval).  Iranian oil would then be off the market.

3. The radicals within OPEC, including Iran and Venezuela, are deliberately limiting production and buying futures to drive up the price.

4. Foreign hedge fund and oil speculators driving up the price based on future anticipated demand.

All of the above.

Whatever the reason why, should gas prices climb to over $5 per gallon there will be major effects on the economy, food prices, transportation prices, durable goods, everything would cost more, and real estate prices would generally decline.  There is also the possibility of world wide recession.

Now Americans should know the US economy for the first time in history is in the hands of foreign entities that both fund the national debt (50% is owned by foreigners) and what we need for the economy (oil and imports).

Subscribe to Realestateblocks.com!

WHO’D A THUNK IT?  As you have already read it on Realestateblocks.com, mortgage interest rates are about to rise due to inflation cause by the shrinking value of the dollar.  Fed Chairman Bernacke announced today that the Feds low interest rate cuts were at an end, and inflation caused by the drop in the international value of the dollar my lead to higher interest rates.

Here I am, Cassandra, again.

I just got out of a meeting with Chase Mortgage regarding mortgage loans.  Online Chase’s mortgage interest rates are not available.  Wells Fargo was also nervous about mortgages rates.  Thirty year rates move before short term rates and it is likely borrowers will not see 5.85% fixed rate again for many years.  Any rate under 8.0% fixed is a good rate.  Traditionally mortgage rates run at least 3% over the rate of inflation.  Right now, it looks like fixed rates should be close to 10%.  ARMs and interest only are last year’s idea.

The primary cost of a home is the amount of the monthly payment.  Smart buyers and sellers will make their move now, and complete purchases and sales before November.

Borrowers will not be able to get low fixed rates again for love nor money in a few short months.

You read it first on Realestateblocks.com!  Subscribe today!

FUEL PRICES WILL AFFECT home prices.  The US has been through this before in the early 1970s when fuel was not available, or very expensive.  Sustained high gas and fuel prices DO affect home values.  This is what you can expect:

The further people commute to central work locations the lower the price of the home.  Homes within a 20 to 25 minute drive to central work locations, like downtown central cities, or central industrial areas will expect to pay slightly less for a home.  Home prices are really impacted in areas where there is a 45 minute or longer commute time to central work locations.  Bedroom communities for example like Tracy and Gilroy Silicon Valley or El Cajon in the San Diego area, these bedroom communities will be impacted the most by high fuel prices.  During the 1970s fuel crisis home prices fell 10% where homebuyers expected a 45 minute drive to and from work.

Second, home prices very near central work areas will go up, again, as much as 10%.  It is nice to walk to work, ride a bike, or take public transit a short hop to work.  Urban cities like Boston, Salt Lake, and San Francisco will benefit, and people will move to central cities.  It is more energy efficient!  May urban areas like New York it is possible to give up a car completely!  Nice.

These price adjustments due to driving time will begin to occur almost immediately.

The bad part of this is bedroom communities have already been hit hard with declining prices with the mortgage crisis, and the fuel crisis will exacerbate the price declines.

Over the long term there will be additional impacts of energy costs on home prices.  Energy sources compete with each other.  Natural gas, for instance, can be converted to LNG to burn in cars and trucks.  It is cheaper than diesel fuel or gas and people will convert their cars and trucks to LNG as well as veg oil, palm oil, and other bio fuels.  Your home energy costs will go up too!  And food.

Home energy audits are just around the corner for home buyers and sellers.

Ha!  I’m going Green.  I’m already Green!  Here are some tips.

It is healthy to buy a bike and use it.  Bikes burn calories.  I need to burn calories, so I’m pedaling to work.  Walk when you can.  Buy a motor bike or Vespa for personal mid-distance transportation.  Right now my Ford gets 26 mpg.  Not bad, but not good either. The ultimate vehicle is a hybrid getting 50 mpg or better, or something like Volkswagon Rabbit Diesel… 50 miles per gallon then burn veg oil which you can get free!  I win!!!

Ha!  Win going Green!

I’ll keep you posted at Realestateblocks.com.  Subscribe today!