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Daily Archives: June 22, 2012
Top Photo and Video Apps for Real Estate Marketing | Katonah NY Real Estate
Using Instagram for Marketing | Bedford NY Real Estate
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Lookout Tower Living | Pound Ridge Real Estate
Feeling a slight sense of apprehension, I took my first look at what was to be home for my husband and me over the course of the three months to come: a 12′ X 12′ glass-enclosed room perched on top a 40-foot tower on northern Idaho’s Gisborne Mountain. Mike and I were about to begin a season as fire lookouts for the U.S. Forest Service, and I was still a bit leery of the rustic life we would lead in our crow’s-nest.
The lookout tower was at the end of a chunky, rutted road some 30 miles from a store, ten miles from our nearest neighbor, and two miles from any source of water. We had no electricity, and only a small government radio for communication. The furnishings in our mountaintop aerie included a bed, a table and two chairs, a tiny stove, a midget refrigerator … and the tool of our “trade”: the four-foot-tall fire-finder we used to search for plumes of smoke.
Besides spotting possible blazes, our other responsibility was to report daily weather data to the regional Forest Service station. So, as you can imagine, we looked forward to having a lot of spare time to enjoy our magnificent 360° view of mountains, lakes, and sky.
Water Conservation
Soon after settling into the lofty home, we realized that water would be our most precious resource. Because the nearest spring was a round-trip hike of four miles, we had to devise ways to conserve the supply (a Forest Service truck made periodic — if irregular — visits to fill up our two 10-gallon tanks).
The biggest water wasters in most urban homes, of course, are the various components of the indoor plumbing system. Since we had an outhouse — and no piped-in water — we didn’t even have to concern ourselves with that kind of extravagance. Mike and I found, however, that we were able to save still more of the valuable liquid by practicing our own unorthodox (but efficient! ) conservation methods.
Our baths were usually shared, short (nobody lingers when bathing on a windy catwalk in 40°F weather!) … and limited to one every two or three days. We washed our clothes — once a week — in the rainwater collected in a two-gallon bucket. Furthermore, Mike and I found that — if we steamed our vegetables — the same water could be reused for several meals. We also made it a habit to eat together, out of the same pot or pan, so that we’d have fewer dishes to do. Then all our eating and cooking utensils for the day were washed after dinner … and one evening’s rinse water was saved to serve as the next day’s wash water.
MY COMMUNITY—>
The 10 US States Hit Hardest By The Euro Crisis | Bedford Corners Homes
The 10 US States Getting Slammed By The European Collapse
The Milken Institute published a report this week examining the effects of the euro crisis on individual U.S. states based on which ones send the most exports to the EU as a share of their total exports and GDP.
Armen Bedroussian, a Milken Institute economist, writes that even though the reliance of the United States on the EU as an export destination has waned over the years and that “at the national level the contagion effects of a EU recession on U.S. exports appear relatively mild, the impact on some states doesn’t appear as rosy.”
Student Loan Interest Hike Could Cripple New Buyers | Chappaqua NY Homes
The doubling of interest on student loans set to take effect July 1 could make it more difficult or impossible for large numbers of young first-time home buyers to qualify for mortgages.
Should student loan interest rates double from 3.4 to 6.8 percent a week from Sunday as scheduled, seven million potential young home buyers with student loans face higher monthly payments and larger student loan debt, both of which could make getting a mortgage more expensive for all and impossible for some.
Higher student loan rates impact future home buyers two ways. They will result in higher payments, as much as $1,000 a year, and also will increase the amount of debt burden that will be calculated in the debt-to-income ratio used by mortgage originators to qualify applicants.
The ideal 33 percent of debt-to-income includes student loan payment, car payment, credit card payments and the monthly mortgage payment, according to an analysis by Selma Hepp, senior economist with the California Association of Realtors. Should interested rates be doubled, she looked at two scenarios. The first one looks at the impact of an average $19,000 loan facing recent California graduates and the second scenarios illustrates the impact of higher student loan debt, $50,000. In both cases, student loan payment increases with doubling of interest. While the average student debt impacts mortgage payment by 2 percent, the larger debt has a 7 percent impact on the mortgage payment. In either case, student loan payments matter in evaluating debt-to-income ratio for potential new homebuyer, Hepp wrote.
The 62 million people echo boomers, currently aged 17 to 31, have been hit hard by the recession, an uncertain job market, no real income growth, tighter mortgage lending rules, and mounting student and credit card debt.
“It is no surprise that some of them do not put priority on homeownership,” Hepp said.
Student loans typically burden graduates for many years after graduation. In a recent study, college seniors who graduated with student loans each owed an average of $25,250, up significantly from an average of $12,750 in 1996. Parents have accumulated student debt as well, $34,000 on average. The aggregate amount of student loan debt in the U.S. is over $1 trillion currently. Between March 31, of this year and 2011, student loan debt rose by $64 billion. However, over the same period, all other forms of household debt fell by $383 billion. Put another way, since the peak in household debt in the third quarter of 2008, student loan debt has increased by $293 billion, while other forms of debt fell by $1.53 trillion.
Yet the echo boomers, or Millienials, are often cited as critical to the long-term recovery of the housing economy. Last week’s State of the Nation’s Housing report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Policy, for example, suggested household growth over the next 20 years could potentially spur new home demand to an even greater extent than the Baby Boomers in the 1970s. (See More than a Million New Households a Year Forecast.)
Risk Returns to Home Values | Armonk NY Homes
In light of the tremendous losses in equity homeowners have suffered over the past six years and the continued uncertainty surrounding the housing market, the economics of home ownership will make sense only if equity can be protected, Scott Ryles, CEO of Home Value Insurance Company, told the nation’s leading real estate journalists attending the 46th Annual Meeting of the National Association of Real Estate Editors.
“The financial impact of the loss of equity has been devastating, both to the national economy, and to millions of homeowners who rely upon their home’s equity to finance their next home purchase or their retirement. According to the Federal Reserve this month, household net worth declined 40 percent from 2007 to 2010 due to housing price declines, and prices have declined further since 2010. Clearly the days when housing was a safe investments are over,” Ryles said at the opening day of the NAREE National Conference, attended by hundreds of real estate journalists at the Brown Palace Hotel and Spa in Denver.
“Local housing market performance has always varied considerably, with numerous examples of 10 percent, or even 20 percent, downturns in the past 40 years. Looking forward, population shifts will be a prevailing force. Baby Boomers with insufficient retirement assets will be forced to sell their homes to realize their savings to cover living and health care expenses, creating an oversupply that won’t be filled by new entrants to the housing market. Homeowners and today’s home buyers cannot safely assume their homes will appreciate,” commented Ryles.
Home Value Protection provides homeowners an affordable solution to insure their equity.
“Many Home Value Protection policyholders live in areas where housing prices continue to decline. These homeowners have experienced an average loss in value of $5507 since taking out a Home Value Protection policy. Homeowners in Georgia have been especially hard hit, with an average decline in home value of nearly $12,000 among policyholders with a loss. Without Home Value Protection, policyholders’ home equity would be at risk, potentially putting them underwater on their mortgage. Instead, policyholders have financial protection and peace of mind knowing they are insured against a housing market that continues to prove difficult to predict,” Ryles said.