Tag: income property
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Today’s New Renters Bridge Generation Gaps
The stereotypes are familiar: unemployed twentysomethings living in their parents’ basements, senior citizens trotting off to retirement communities in sunny states – or occupying rocking chairs on the porch of the family home. But new economic realities and changing social dynamics are putting a new spin on the old pictures. Now, millennials and retirees are…
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Power Companies Challenge Solar Incentives
Who owns the sun? Eco-friendly energy saving upgrades can save money and make properties more saleable – but according to some utility companies around the country, the fledgling solar panel industry also threatens their very existence. And they’re pushing to penalize property owners who opt for renewable energy upgrades and the credits and incentives that…
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The US Housing Market Welcomes Chinese Investors
A changing economic picture brings new perspectives. A few years ago, Japanese investors with big bucks began snapping up US real estate at ferocious rates and raising fears that Asian investors would end up owning the country. Now, though, as Chinese investors take the lead in foreign investment in US real estate, a shaky housing…
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Do Short Sales Boost Real Estate’s Recovery?
housing market continues to improve – a trend that signals better health for the economy as a whole. Although that means fewer distressed properties are hitting the market, short sales still pop up in the listings — a process with a bad name that can mean a good property. The number of short sales soared…
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House Republicans Propose a New PATH for Housing
The years after the massive hosing collapse of 2008 saw bill after bill purporting to protect the American home buyer from credit crises, bank abuse and lending policies. Now, as if the Dodd Frank Act and similar, smaller bills weren’t enough, Washington policy makers are once again tackling the sticky issue of reforming government home…
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Do Pocket Listings Manipulate the Market?
The housing recovery seems to be humming along nicely, by many accounts. But the rebound depends on properties made available for sale. A little known and slightly shady practice known as “pocket listings” can skew access to those potential properties, though, as brokers collect bigger commissions by keeping properties out of public access while they…
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Fewer First Time Buyers Affect the Housing Recovery
By many indications, the hosing recovery is still on the upswing. Mortgage rates remain on the low side and homes are available in most markets. So why aren’t first time buyers taking the plunge into homeownership? The answer, according to a new report from RE Insider, is complex, with broader implications for the rebound of…
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New Legislation Promises a Holistic Housing Policy
The government’s heavy involvement in housing affairs may be coming to an end – at least if a new bill promising a more “holistic” approach to housing policies becomes law. Now in draft form, the new legislation promises to whittle down the government’s presence in home financing and refinancing to make way for greater privatization…
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Can Better Math Skills Boost the Housing Recovery?
Can something as simple as better arithmetic skills prevent another housing collapse? According to a new study by researchers at Columbia Business School, the answer might be yes. After an extensive survey of mortgage holders both before and after the housing collapse, Columbia’s scholars found that a key predictor of mortgage defaults and foreclosures turned…
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New Tax Changes Target the Mortgage Interest Deduction
It’s that time again, as officials on both sides of the political fence tackle revisions to the tax code with an eye to reclaiming lost revenue and capping or eliminating various deductions and credits. This time around they’re eyeing the venerable mortgage interest deduction, a prized benefit that heads the list of deductions related to…