Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Friday, April 1, 2011
The “Mom Cave”
It’s new, it’s fun, and it’s strictly personal!
Now that the “man cave” has become an established custom in homes, women have taken the cue to establish a spot of their own. Forget men’s huge TVs, theater chairs and eating spots, where they do manly, messy, sporting things. A woman’s personal place is entirely different.
Whether it was formerly a guest room, a place next to the family room in the basement, or any unused space, the “mom cave” is generally filled with personal mementos and comfort items. It’s a room they can call their own.
Many women, not just moms, are taking over a space in their homes and turning it into a haven where they can relax and pursue personal interests. Decorators are applauding the trend.
Here’s what’s needed to create the cave: A place to sit, storage space, an area to do what they want to do, such as scrapbooking, and space for occasional visitors. The walls can be decorated with old or new photographs in fun frames, and bright wall colors or fancy wallpaper served as a background.
New York designer Elaine Griffin embraces the concept and recently partnered with Homegoods in Manhattan to show the new decor and space suggestions. She says the mom cave is where a woman, who nurtures everyone else, goes to nurture herself.
Griffin loves color. She says mom caves should be fun, feminine and highly personalized. They should include a reading place, probably with a nice throw on the arm of a chair, or a chaise lounge, a bookcase painted in a bright color, a fancy area rug, and maybe boxes of brightly-colored file folders and lamp shades that reflect a woman’s tastes.
If they don’t have a whole room, Griffin suggests taking over a spot, such as under a stair landing, for a sanctuary using narrow console tables, a rug and armchairs. Or part of the family room or dining room could be captured for their own.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Treasury Invites Taxpayers to Get Refunds by Debit Card
The U.S. Treasury wants to quit writing paper checks. At the same time, it wants to give taxpayers more choices.
Its latest effort consists of a pilot program to deliver tax refunds through prepaid debit cards. About 600,000 taxpayers earning $35,000 a year or less have received letters inviting them to activate a debit card that can receive direct deposits.
An estimated nine million households, about one in every 12, don’t have bank accounts. By activating the debit card for a tax refund, they wouldn’t have to pay a check-cashing fee, and the government would save the cost of producing a check.
Each tax refund check costs the government about $1, including the cost of processing roughly 600,000 claims each year for missing checks. Payments by direct deposit cost the government about 10 cents.
The pilot program will provide consumers with a debit card that can be used, not just for receiving refunds, but also for shopping with many features of a checking account.
Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin, quoted by Bankrate.com, says the debit card “can be used for everyday financial transactions, such as receiving wages by direct deposit, withdrawing cash, making purchases, paying bills and building savings safely, giving users more control over their financial futures.”
Half of the 600,000 offers from the Treasury test program will carry a monthly fee of $4.50. The rest will be free. The different approaches will allow Treasury to determine which is more likely to lead consumers to sign up for the card.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Last Chance: 3.5 Percent Down
Mortgage industry changes: Low rates and terms may soon be history
You are going to be hearing a lot about restructuring the mortgage industry in the next months and years.
But the bottom line for home buyers is buy now and get financing in place by as early as May. The great terms of recent years will soon be gone, and probably gone forever.
Experts say you will probably never again see down payments in the 5 percent range (even now becoming harder to find) or 30-year fixed rates under 5 percent.
The median down payment in nine major U.S. cities rose to 22 percent late last year. This was the highest requirement since 1997 on properties purchased through conventional mortgages, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
In many areas, however, a down payment of only 10 percent of the mortgage amount could be available for people with high credit scores.
The lowest down payments are still offered by the Federal Housing Administration, FHA. They will finance a home with a 3.5 percent down payment.
But a recent Obama Administration white paper on the mortgage industry hints that this very low down payment might change as the federal footprint in the mortgage market shrinks.
According to CNN Money, Congress will be considering raising FHA down payment requirements, approving higher insurance fees for FHA mortgages, and changing rules for ‘qualified’ mortgages. This could mean higher interest rates for consumers and higher down payments, perhaps up to 30 percent.
With its low down payment requirements, low interest rates, and lower credit score requirements, FHA now has a 30 percent market share in the mortgage arena but plans are to reduce its activity to just 10 percent.
Administration officials say the planned process could take some time, but it might include phasing out federal backing of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Since the mortgage crisis began, the government has bailed out the federally backed entities to the tune of $150 billion.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
NAR Shadow Inventory
It’s still a great time to buy real estate! With real estate inventories at an all-time high, and rates still at attractive levels, the window is wide open for home buyers. But buyers beware, the window doesn’t stay open indefinitely.
Take a look at the blog by Economists Outlook, which features a state-by-state estimate of so-called “Shadow Inventory” – real estate that will be have to be sold that we don’t know about yet. It’s made up of homes that soon will be on the market, but not for the usual reasons.
Shadow inventory includes homes that are usually several months in arrears on their mortgage and about to hit the foreclosure circuit; homes that are 90-plus days delinquent and currently languishing in foreclosure; or bank-owned (REOs) that have not yet been put on the market. But come on the market they will, one way or the other, and at greatly discounted prices – distressed or short sales.
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