REITs vs. Traditional Real Estate Investing
Are you looking to invest in real estate but unsure if REITs or traditional investing is the right choice for you? Read on to discover the pros and cons of each approach and find out which one aligns with your investment goals.
Foreclosures Soar 200% in August
Bank of America is ramping up its foreclosure processing, sending out far more notices of default to borrowers in August than in previous months, well over 200 percent more month-to-month.
Do You Have a Financial Blueprint For Your Future?
Whether it is a lack of time, money, or interest, we seem to like to “wing it” when it comes to our financial future. Fortunately, we don’t have to have the intellect and expertise of an architect to take steps to blueprint the kind of financial future that we want. It really takes just a short amount of time to key into the “desires of our heart” (Psalm 37:4). It begins with financial goals.
Making Money in Real Estate in 2011
According to the National Association of Realtors, all-cash buyers accounted for 30% of existing home sales last month. That’s up from 25% in May 2010, and 12% two years ago. If you go back to March of this year, cash buyers made up an astounding 35% of all existing home sales.
Housing Crisis Worse than Great Depression: 7 Shocking Facts About the U.S. Housing Market
Unless you have been asleep for the past several years, you know that the United States housing market is in the midst of a downturn of historic proportions. According to Case-Shiller, one of the leading housing data analysts, housing prices dropped 1.9 percent in the first quarter of 2011, revealing evidence of a clear double-dip in prices. The fall in prices even led one economist to claim that the housing crisis has been larger and faster than the one during the Great Depression.
Cost of Living Soars as Inflation Rises Most in 3 Years
Editor’s Note: Today’s rise in the CPI numbers are the inevitable outcome of the Federal Reserve’s “easy money” policies. Rising consumer prices are still in the warm-up phase. We expect inflationary pressures to continue to threaten the U.S. economy with full blown hyperinflation remaining a “real and imminent” threat over the next 12-18 months.
The Decline and Fall of the American empire
The economic powerhouse of the 20th century emerged stronger from the Depression. But faced with cultural decay, structural weaknesses and reliance on finance, can the US do it again?
Random Thoughts on the U.S. Economic “Recovery”
Stocks are getting hammered today after U.S. companies added fewer employees than forecast in May. Here are some of my random thoughts on the U.S. economic “recovery.”
The Slow Death of the Dollar
The Slow Death of the Dollar… In section C of yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, the paper spent several pages on the topic of global currencies.
New IMF Report Calls for Replacing U.S. Dollar
IMF increases calls for alternative to U.S. Dollar… A new report issued by the IMF on Thursday is calling for Special Drawing Rights (SDR’s) as a potential, yet viable, replacement of the U.S. Dollar’s role as the global reserve currency.
Give Us Your Opinion: Would You Give Up Your Mortgage Deduction for a Flat Tax?
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As I reported earlier on this program, President Obama’s Deficit Commission has proposed some major spending cuts to Social Security, limiting Medicare and has even suggested the elimination of the popular mortgage interest deduction for homeowners. They have also proposed lowering tax rates and simplifying the tax code.
Banks repossess US homes at record pace
Banks repossessed a record number of U.S. homes in the second quarter, but slowed new foreclosure notices to manage distressed properties on the market, real estate data company RealtyTrac said on Thursday.