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Las Vegas housing prices continue to increase. The median new-home price was $310,000 at year’s end, up approximately 7 percent from a year earlier. There have been some 7,700 condo conversions, (gutting out old apartments, updating them, & selling them as condos) which have a median price of $185,000 (some actually start as high as $200,000).

8. Home Insurance - covers theft and damage to the insides/belongings of our home

Have you ever wondered what happens to your mortgage once it closes? Probably not, but the chances are that it ended up as a package with hundreds of other mortgages and sold as a security. What typically happens is the mortgage brokers sells the debt to a bank, who sells the debt to Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae, who packages mortgages together, guarantees that they will be paid as promised, and issues securities to investors with the big bag of mortgages as collateral. Which means that at the end of the day, the only ones that are holding any significant risk are Fannie and Freddie.

A real estate agent, who is professional can help you to negotiate all of these questions. Once you have narrowed down your options, made a decision about the type of home you’re looking for and at what monthly mortgage payment, and at what financing terms. After these steps have been completed it is time to begin looking for a home. Most Realtors are able to send you listings on a daily basis. This way, as soon as a new property comes on the market, you will know about it as soon as possible and be able to see the property in a timely manner. In this market, even though it is slowing down considerably, it is still important to see the home first. And if you like the home put your offer in as expeditiously as possible.

I love Durham, NC dearly. It’s affordable, friendly, liberal, racially diverse, ethically diverse, religiously diverse, educationally diverse, kid-friendly, and activist. We’ve even got a science museum up the street, we walk our son to a humanities-enriched public school across a park with a bike trail, and that’s in a neighborhood with housing prices in the low $100Ks, something that Manhattanites would kill for.

Lots of buyers in this area used ARM's with low rates in order to get themselves into homes during the recent boom. Now that ARM rates are rising and fixed loans are still fairly low, it might be worth checking into refinancing if you bought on an ARM. Before it ends up costing you and ARM and a leg.

Does anyone seriously think that even with housing prices going through the roof, that rent would actually decrease?

Although many places in America suffer from gentrification,* suburbia is the only development type that builds this economic monoculture into each neighborhood. Most of suburbia is separated into chunks of housing units distinguished by cost (and not much else). Subdivisions are separated into houses “from $360,000-$400,000!” or some other narrow price range. This is clearly not a preferred development type at the regional level nor is it desirable type by a growing number of citizens of all ages and types who see the benefit of living in small town neighborhoods like Rolla or even diverse cities like University City. Even the lily-white city of St. Charles has a diverse range of housing prices and is by far the most interesting and culturally rich part of St. Charles County.

So we’ve decided to look for a house this spring, with a tentative move date of no later than July (since that is when our apartment lease is up.) I know we’re a year or two late to the party, since rates have been so great for the last 5 years or so… but life has delayed us until this point, so there’s not much we could have done. Plus we should be able to (still) get a fairly good rate (historically speaking) and housing prices in the Buffalo area are always pretty good, so we should be able to get a lot of house for our money.

Jode’s school (with a good acceptance rate of master’s degree applicants) + low tuition rates for the master’s program + a children’s hospital(for William) + affordable cost of living + along the Route 80 corridor (to drive to California for family visits) + Starbucks (for my employment) + good housing prices(more house for the buck!) + places Jode can work part time (and still attend school) =Nebraska*8 + one cat + one very old hamster.

Normally this would not be such a bad thing, because it makes our exports cheaper and our imports more expensive, thus reducing the trade deficit. But a fall in the dollar could set off a spike in long-term interest rates here, including mortgage rates, which could burst the housing bubble. It could also cause the Federal Reserve to raise short-term interest rates more than it should, since rising import prices add to inflation. This would also slow the economy.

Well okay…some people could. Like the people from this coastal community. These same people who can’t get insurance on their houses. Now, when you’ve got insurance companies who refuse to give you home insurance under any circumstances, don’t you think that would give you kind of a clue? Well okay. Let’s cut them a break. Maybe they’re not from around here. Maybe they don’t understand the power of the Pacific, and they just think that the insurance companies don’t want to take their money because they’re on some kind of hallucinogenic drugs.