Condo Trends

When it comes to condos, staying on the cutting edge of style and decor is key. The general perception of what’s hot and what’s not can change daily, so choosing trendy yet timeless decorating styles and furniture pieces is the true challenge for the condo dweller. Always keep resale value in mind when you paint or make upgrades. Chances are, you won’t live in this condo forever and when you do sell, you want the place to be attractive to a wide demographic–rather than simply to those who share the same tastes you do.
What’s Hot:
Clutter-Free Living

The choice to live in a condo generally means one must commit to living clutter-free. Although most condos have a storage locker and at least one closet, the space for storage is quite limited compared to that of other types of homes. That’s why it’s so important to adopt a Zen-like approach to clutter and possessions. If you don’t need it, sell it, give it to charity or throw it out. If you don’t know where you’ll put it, don’t buy it. Life is much easier without too much stuff, and condos are much more attractive when they aren’t packed with useless possessions.
Flowing Decor
When decorating a condo, choose a theme and stick with it. Condos and condo townhouses are generally open-concept and fairly small, and introducing too many colour schemes will overpower the space. When painting, choose a colour that you can repeat–for example, paint your bedroom the same colour as your washroom to give the impression of an ensuite and then chose a lighter or darker version of the shade for the living area and kitchen.
Dramatic Wood Finishes
It’s tempting to go with deep, dark paint colours when seeking to add drama to your condo decor, but particularly in a small space, this is not a great idea. Instead, stain the floors a dark oak or cherrywood finish. Cupboards can be outfitted with dramatic finish as well and furniture in rich distressed black stain is another attractive way to add depth to your decorating.
Streamlined Storage
Maximize closet space by building shelves and installing closet organizers. Make every square foot count–even under the bed! Buy thin plastic storage boxes which slide easily into small spaces and use them to store seasonal clothing, wrapping paper, gift bags and more. Invest in drawer organizers and cupboard shelves, too.
What’s Not:
Garish Paint Colours
Lime green may be your favourite colour–and very in to boot–but that doesn’t mean lime is a wise paint colour choice. If you love it, don’t shy away completely, but don’t make it the main focus of your space, either, as rich colours tend to dominate. Instead, choose boldly-coloured accessories such as blankets, throws, candles and vases. If you simply must paint in a dramatic shade, choose a single wall to adorn with shocking colour.
Fading Floors
Even if you didn’t upgrade your floors, it’s important to keep them in great condition. Laminate floors should not be washed with water, because it can leak through cracks and cause bubbling. Instead, sweep well and spot clean with a damp cloth. If you have hardwood, keep it in mint condition by cleaning and waxing regularly. If you plan to sell, a floor sand and refinish may be a good investment.
Too Much Bulk
You may not plan to live in a condo forever, and thus would rather invest in furniture that will make the transition from condo to house with ease – but big, bulky, house-size furniture just doesn’t compute in a small condo. Choose your stuff wisely, and don’t break the bank on condo furniture. There are bargains to be had, especially on small, streamlined stuff.

Jerry Seinfeld's Home for sale.

  Amazing Mountain Retreat .




While he's best known as the star of a show about nothing, actor and comedian Jerry Seinfeld's Telluride home is really something. Listed for a hefty $18.25 million, the 14,200-square-foot estate is offered fully furnished and comes with 11 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, a four-car garage and a 5,500-square-foot deck with stunning views of the San Juan Mountains. The home was originally built in 1991 but has been extensively updated in recent years, according to The Wall Street Journal. A manicured trail system and a tranquil creek wind through towering aspen and spruce trees on the 26-acre property.

Rihanna's Estate For Sale At a Bargain Price.

 Barbadian music sensation Rihanna has put her Los Angeles, California mansion up for sale. The Grammy Award-winning recording artist paid $6.9 million for the property back in 2009 and has since invested more than $7 million in the home. However, due to extensive water damage, the pop princess has listed the 8,520-square-foot property at the discounted price of $4.5 million. Nestled directly west of the Franklin Canyon Park, the 8 bedroom, 10 bathroom gated estate offers sprawling views of the canyon below and surrounding Hollywood hills. The three-story contemporary mansion is accentuated by two-story high windowed rooms that, along with a pool, spa and extended deck area, face out towards the canyon. Inside, the home itself includes three fireplaces, hardwood floors, a spacious kitchen, media room and master suite.

 

New Golf Community Concept

Turkey has always been known to be diverse in climate, lifestyle, culture and history. The Meditterranean coast, particularly a region that is plentiful in this array of diversity.
However no other region along the Mediterranean coast offers as much diversity in real estate. Many other regions are restricted to architectural design and concept.
In these areas you have the hilltops overlooking the sea with the similar style of architecture in all residential builds. This is not so in this particular region. There's something to suit everyone's taste as well as budget. From magnificent sea and mountain views to lush green pine forest views to snow covered hilltops; from small private bays to the massive Gulf ; from the Greek Islands to Marina views; and from large city skylines to small village views.

However, let's also not forget a long line of seaside First Class Championship Golf course views. In recent times, an interest in the game has proven well with a 17 per cent increase in rounds played in 2009, according to a survey by business consultancy KPMG.
Compared to that of other popular European golfing areas such as Spain, Turkey provides low-cost golf package holidays and fees, thereby drawing the interest of golf enthusiasts from around the globe. Accordign to an article from the Financial Times, this is already a busy golfing destination; there are  almost a dozen and a half courses on a 15km strip of coastal land making it the densest golf course cluster in the Mediterranean.
Having seen this potential in golf real estate, are two major golf investment projects within this region in the works. The up and coming Golf Club; as well as the other complex; which is still in the planning stages, but expected to surface by the end of the year. Both projects have one major feature in common that no other Golf project has provided until now.
Investors will be able to purchase real estate on a golf course. Where will these two projects be located? The Golf Club will be developed in an emerging part of Turkey.

Real Estate vs Stock Market

The question of whether people should invest in real estate or stocks is a rather complex topic of market dynamics and volatility. The decision should be based on future predictions determined by the fundamentals rather than past performance and short term media 'insight'. With this in mind, it is most likely best to be diversified and include both real estate and stocks in your portfolio. So now the real question is, what percentage should you allocate to real estate?
We must understand the basics of how the economy affects real estate and the stock market. Although they are linked through an intricacy of financial stocks and REITs, they are ultimately independent and have their own unique characteristics.

Taking Advantages of the Cycles

You must base your decision of how much capital you should allocate on real estate depending on your age and the current stage of the real estate business cycle. If you are young and looking for risky investments, there is probably an opportunity for you during any business cycle. However, if you are near retirement and are looking for a stable investment, you should probably stick to investing in real estate after a market adjustment for recession. Considering real estate is generally much more stable than the stock market, it is probably wise to allocate more money to real estate as you get closer to retirement or are currently in retirement. Real estate is often seen as a capital preservation vehicle.
You can determine the current business cycle by watching economic reports and the analysis of real estate performance. You should be looking to invest during a business cycle on the tail end of a recession or the beginning of an expansion.
Please do not confuse the cycle of stocks with the cycle of real estate. Although somewhat connected, they are not the same.

Interest Rates

In regards to commercial real estate, low interest rates make it easier for companies to expand by building more office and factories through borrowed funds from mortgage lenders. This in return, makes investing in real estate more profitable. High interest rates in contrast spark a lower amount of borrowing and real estate recession. This makes investing in real estate less favorable.
Although interest rates should not be the only factor in your decision, it should have some influence on it. Even if you are investing in commercial REIT's, where you are not directly affected by the interest rates, you will have a nice boost in performance with dropping interest rates.
Although these principles are not solid through all markets, they are good general rules.

Conclusion

In conclusion, investing in real estate should be an on-going pursuit, but the amount of capital you allocate to real estate should be determined by your age, risk tolerance, and the current business cycle.

Real estate is an excellent investment for people with a low tolerance for risk, nearing retirement, during a period of real estate business expansion.

Toronto - Highrise Capital of North America

High rises are sprouting up across Toronto, faster than you can count to 132. That's the number of current projects on the go. Compare this to the number two spot in North America, Mexico city at 88 and New York City at 86. The Greater Toronto population is going to explode by another 1.5 million people by 2020. Most of this population growth will be vertical, rather than the suburbs.

The heights of towers are ever increasingly pushing the boundaries, up, up and away. This is has incredible power to identify places in the World, and if you subtract them, you lose identity globally. So, go on T.O., push the envelope, don't be shy, we expect it!

US Homeownership rate, now's the time to buy!

The U.S. homeownership rate rose a notch in the third quarter, with 66.1 percent of households owning a home – up from 66.0 percent in the prior quarter. However, the trend has clearly been downward since the bubble situation of several years ago. Just maybe, however, we’re starting to venture into sustainable homeownership, since the current ownership rate matches up with 1998 levels. Back in 1998, there was no mention of a housing bubble or unsustainability in the media or in the academic literature, so the current homeownership figures may indeed indicate the right stabilizing level for the country. Other housing data have also pointed to stabilization (though not a genuine recovery) in recent months – such as home prices, home sales, and housing starts.

If the homeownership rate stabilizes at the current 66 percent or so level then the natural increases in population (3 million a year) and households (about 1.1 million a year during normal times) in the U.S. will bring about 700,000 additional homeowners each year. Total home sales and business opportunities for REALTORS® would arise from these new set of homeowners. Not to mention the added turnover rate among the existing 75 million home owning families, which was exceptionally low in recent years, due in part both to the weak economy and to the many underwater homeowners who have been unable to move without a short-sale approval from the banks.

Top 5 USA Distressed Locations For Real Estate Bargains

If you want a great real estate deal, you ought to look in places where distressed sales (short-sales and foreclosures) count for at least half of all the sales in a particular real estate market.

According to the inaugural U.S. Housing and Mortgage Trends report from CoreLogic, these five markets offered the largest percentage of distressed home sales in June, 2011:

Las Vegas, Nevada, where 61 percent of all real estate sales were distressed property
Riverside, California, 59 percent of real estate sales were distressed
Phoenix, Arizona, 53 percent of real estate sales were distressed
Sacramento, California, 51 percent of real estate sales were distressed
Orlando, Florida, 50 percent of real estate sales were distressed

The report explains that distressed sales were at a seven-month low in June, thanks to the end of the home buyer tax credits. However, distressed sales as a share of total real estate sales are expected to rise during the rest of this year. And, that means better deals for home buyers and investors.

What else will help home buyers and investors? According to the press release accompanying the report:

“Negative equity rates will also be a major factor slowing the housing recovery, with nearly one in four homeowners under water and most of those borrowers unable to sell their homes.”

And of course, news that foreclosures have reached a new record for the third time in five months.

There could be as many as 12 million more foreclosures coming down the pipeline over the next few years.

Buyers, get your down payments ready - great real estate deals abound in every market. Read more: http://www.soharworldhomes.com

Risk = Opportunity

A credit crunch has additionally been described as a capital crunch. There is usually a shortage in equity capital, and this limits lenders’ abilities to make loans, and this is especially true in regions that have been most affected by the subprime mortgage and financial crisis. In a credit crunch, the lenders quit lending, and instead they hoard their capital, as they are afraid of loaning out too much money with the increasing bankruptcies, job losses, and mortgage defaults, as well as additional factors which boost the risks of an individual not being capable of repaying a loan.

Fewer dollars available for mortgages is the impact that this has on the real estate market. There becomes an oversupply of houses on the market, as fewer dollars are available in mortgages. And this in turn means that construction of new homes will be slowed or even stopped altogether because builders cannot sell the homes they have built. This was evident in areas of the nation where bankruptcies and foreclosures exacerbated an already saturated real estate market.

Foreclosures, bankruptcies, and job losses caused individuals to receive poor scores from their credit reports, and this caused even lower credit scores. Low credit scores increase the difficulty of securing credit at all, much less getting good terms on a loan. Further, given the increasing bankruptcies, defaults and foreclosures, banks clamped down on their lending criteria until their standards became excessively restrictive.

Persons who ought to have been able to receive approval for mortgage loans were rejected. As fewer people were able to buy houses, there were even more surplus houses on the market that couldn’t be sold. The excessive number of houses for sale must be resolved for the market to rejuvenate, but several factors, not the least of which is inordinately restrictive mortgage lending policy, are creating a drag on the recovery.

Yet another negative impact on the real estate market has proven to be the corrections in price, as some regions have seen home prices plummet in the amount of 25% or even higher. Because of the drastic drop in home value, some people owed more on their existing mortgage than they could get if the house was sold; this led to some homeowners deciding to go through foreclosure rather than continuing to pay on their mortgage.

Any purchaser having difficulty getting financing is best advised to remain calm and not panic. They ought to keep doing all of the things possible to improve their credit, mend their credit reports, and to boost their overall credit scores. When things loosen up, they will discover that it is simpler to be approved for a mortgage loan, and finally they will be able to buy the house that they desire.

For more information go to www.soharworldhomes.com

Money is bleeding at a critical rate in the financial services industry

Money-market funds: A net $69 billion was deposited into these funds, designed to be safe harbors where investors can temporarily park cash and quickly access it when needed. (sounds impressive at first, but it was a giveback from the previous month which saw huge redemptions) That proved a strong draw in August, in contrast with July. In that month, investors withdrew a net $113 billion, due to fears that Congress might fail to reach an agreement to lift the government’s debt ceiling

Bond funds: Investors typically are attracted to bonds when stock prices tumble. That was the case in July, when bond funds attracted $8 billion in net deposits. But last month, investors in taxable bond funds — a category that includes corporate bonds — withdrew a net $9.7 billion. Strategic Insight noted big withdrawals out of floating-rate and high-yield bond funds. Both categories hold bonds that typically earn high rates of return, with greater risk of volatility.

Foreign stock funds: Investors withdrew a net $1.4 billion from funds that buy foreign stocks. Flows into this category have been negative for two months in a row, but remain positive year-to-date, with nearly $44 billion in net deposits.

The drawdown in the past four months has been dramatic, and we now have net withdrawals approaching  $30 billion year to date. It remains ironic that stocks (and mutual funds) are the one thing people don’t want to buy at a lower price.

For those who think much of this money is going into money market funds or term or GIC's, you would be wrong!

There is one thing left that has huge upside, is recession proof, can bring a source of revenue and historically has been stable over the long run...Real Estate. I know, I know what about what has happened in the States, so what, it is a chance for a newed pattern of growth. At least you can live in a house, what are you going to do with gold?

Apple and Steve Jobs- the story of the man.

From a college dropout to heading an over $350 billion Apple empire, Steve Jobs dramatically transformed the worlds of personal computing, music and mobile phones, ushering in a new digital era.
Jobs, who died at the age of 56 after a seven-year battle with pancreatic cancer, was also the man behind the stupendous success of the computer animation firm Pixar, makers of Toy Story and Finding Nemo.
Though he himself never designed a computer in his life, it was because of him that the Apple products, while largely providing the same services as those from other companies, are perceived to be different.
Born on February 24, 1955 to Joanne Carole Schieble and Abdulfattah Jandali, Steven Paul Jobs was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs. Jandali was a graduate student from Syria who later became a political science professor.
Paul Jobs, who worked in finance and real estate before moving back to his original trade as machinist, moved his family down the San Francisco Peninsula to Mountain View and then to Los Altos in the 1960s. From an early age, Steve Jobs was interested in electronics. As an eighth grader, after discovering that a crucial part was missing from a frequency counter he was assembling, he telephoned William Hewlett, the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard.
Hewlett spoke with the boy for 20 minutes, prepared a bag of parts for him to pick up and offered him a job as a summer intern, according to The New York Times.
Jobs met Stephan Wozniak, with whom he co-founded Apple in 1976, while attending Homestead High School in neighbouring Cupertino.
After enrolling at Reed College in 1972, Jobs left after one semester, but remained in Portland for another 18 months auditing classes. In a commencement address given at Stanford in 2005, Jobs said he had decided to leave college because it was consuming all of his parents' savings.
Jobs returned to Silicon Valley in 1974 and took a job as a technician at Atari, the video game manufacturer. But, he left after several months and travelled to India with a college friend, Daniel Kottke, who would later become an early Apple employee.
Jobs returned to Atari and along with Wozniak, then working as an engineer at HP, began attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club, a hobbyist group that met at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in Menlo Park, California in 1975.
Personal computing had been pioneered at research laboratories close to Stanford and was spreading. Wozniak designed the original Apple I computer simply to show it off to his friends at the Homebrew.
It was Jobs who had the inspiration that it could be a commercial product. In early 1976, he and Wozniak, using their own money, began Apple in the Jobs family garage in Los Altos with an initial investment of $1,300 before securing the backing of former Intel executive A C Markkula, who lent them $250,000. Wozniak would be the technical half and Jobs the marketing half of the original Apple I Computer.
Shortly thereafter, they moved the company to a small office in Cupertino. Reacting to Jobs' demise, a Twitter user named Matt Galligan wrote: "R.I.P. Steve Jobs. You touched an ugly world of technology and made it beautiful."
In April 1977, Jobs and Wozniak introduced Apple II at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco, creating a sensation. The company went public in 1981, when its sales touched $600 million from $2 million in 1977.
By 1983, Apple was in the Fortune 500, an achievement for a new firm. In 1981, Jobs joined a small group of Apple engineers pursuing a separate project, a lower-cost system code-named Macintosh, which was introduced in January 1984.
Jobs recruited John Sculley as Apple's chief executive in 1983. Sculley, a former Pepsi-Cola chief executive, helped Jobs introduce a number of new computer models, including an advanced version of the Apple II and later the Lisa and Macintosh desktop computers.
But, the two men became estranged and a power struggle ensued when the Lisa failed commercially and early Macintosh sales proved disappointing, leading to Jobs losing control of the Lisa project.
The Apple board ultimately removed Jobs from his operational role and 1,200 Apple employees were laid off. Jobs then left Apple in 1985.
"I don't wear the right kind of pants to run this company," he told a small gathering of Apple employees before he left, a member of the original Macintosh development team was quoted as saying by NYT.
He was barefoot as he spoke, and wearing blue jeans. In September that year, he announced a new venture NeXT Inc.
He also established a personal philanthropic foundation after leaving Apple but soon decided, instead, to spend much of his fortune $10 million on acquiring Pixar, a struggling graphics supercomputing firm owned by filmmaker George Lucas.
The purchase, though a significant gamble as there was little market then for computer-animated movies, proved profitable when the company, in 1995, along with Walt Disney Pictures, released 'Toy Story', collecting box-office receipts of $362 million.
When Pixar went public in a record-breaking offering, Jobs became a billionaire.
In 2006, the Walt Disney Company agreed to purchase Pixar for $7.4 billion, making Jobs its largest single shareholder, with about 7 per cent of the firm's stock.
Meanwhile, Apple, after unsuccessful efforts to develop next-generation operating systems in 1996 with Gilbert Amelio in command, acquired NeXT for $430 million.
The next year, Jobs returned to Apple as an adviser and became its chief executive again in 2000.
With his rise, Jobs personal life also became more public. He had a number of well-publicised romantic relationships, including one with folk singer Joan Baez before he married Laurene Powell. Jobs and Laurene had three children -- two daughters Eve Jobs and Erin Sienna Jobs and a son, Reed.
Jobs had one more daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, from a relationship with Chrisann Brennan.
Steve Jobs, the legendary Apple co-founder turned his company into one of the most successful technology companies in the world, is dead. He was 56.
In a somber statement on Wednesday, the Apple board of directors said: "We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today. Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve."
Apple announced his death but did not give any specific cause for it.
"His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts," the statement added.
The company said: "Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being."
Jobs had battled cancer in 2004 and underwent a liver transplant in 2009.
Jobs, 55, submitted his resignation to Apple's board of directors on August 25, 2011 and 'strongly recommended' that the board implement its succession plan and name Tim Cook, 50, as CEO.

First there was Greece, then...

It has come to this. Almost a year and a half after rescuing Greece from default, Europe is staring into the abyss. The bailout has proved insufficient. Greece needs more money, and it can't borrow from private markets where it faces interest rates as high as 25 percent. There is no easy escape!
What's called a "debt crisis" is increasingly a political and social crisis. Already, unemployment is 14.1 percent in Greece, 14.7 percent in Ireland, 11.1 percent in Portugal and 20.7 percent in Spain.
Some causes of Europe's plight are well-known: the harsh recession following the 2008-2009 financial crisis; aging populations coupled with costly welfare states. But there's also another less recognized culprit: the euro, the single currency now used by 17 countries.
Launched in 1999, it aimed to foster economic and political unity. For a while, it seemed to succeed. In the euro's first decade, jobs in countries using the common currency increased by 16 million.

It was a mirage. For starters, the euro fostered a credit bubble that led to booms in housing, borrowing and consumer spending. But one policy didn't fit all: Interest rates suited to Germany and France were too low for "periphery" countries (Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain).
Money poured into the periphery countries. There was a huge compression of interest rates. In 1997, rates on 10-year Greek government bonds averaged 9.8 percent compared to 5.7 percent for similar German bonds. By 2003, Greek bonds fetched 4.3 percent, just above the 4.1 percent of German bonds.
"The markets failed. All this would not have occurred if banks in Germany and France had not lent so much," says economist Desmond Lachman of the American Enterprise Institute. "It was like the U.S. housing market." Both American and European banks went overboard in relaxing credit standards.
Few economic statement make my hair stand straight up more than that bit of complete nonsense from Lachman. The markets did not fail. Bureaucrats who dreamed up the Euro failed.
Those bureaucrats devised a currency union with nothing more than suggestions on fiscal controls. Making matters far worse, countries in the Euro-Zone have widely differing political philosophies and policies. That currency union was not brought about by the market. The free market would never have done such a silly thing.
The rationale of The Independent was "It's different this time".
The economic arguments that, on balance, Britain will be better off inside the currency union than outside are persuasive. The discipline of a permanently fixed exchange rate would significantly reduce the risk of a return to high inflation and create greater certainty for companies and investors. There would also be lower transaction costs. There is no doubt that a successful single currency would strengthen Europe's position on the global economic stage.
The opponents of the single currency do not agree. They argue that the experience of the ERM and events since Black Wednesday show that to be locked into a single currency is damaging. Exchange rates, they point out, can act as important "shock absorbers" in times of unexpected crisis. These are powerful arguments. They are most powerful when applied to some EU members - notably Spain, Portugal and Greece - whose less developed economies would make the exigencies of a single currency regime punishing, unpopular and potentially disastrous.
But this is not the condition of Britain today. In 1992 the needs of the British economy were at odds with the priorities of the Bundesbank. They were trying to control inflation, we needed to get out of recession. By contrast, in 1999 six or seven countries will find themselves at the same stage in the cycle, with very similar economic priorities. So things are likely to be different. Points of Failure Predicted In Advance Things were not different were they?
Ironically, in that 1995 article, The Independent pointed out the exact points of failure: Spain, Portugal and Greece.

Governments imposing taxes...such a novel solution for bad management

The European Union’s executive proposed a bloc-wide tax on financial transactions that would set a rate of 0.1 per cent on bond and stock trades and raise €57-billion a year, but Britain said it would only support a global levy.
The EU’s executive European Commission formally adopted on Wednesday plans for a financial transaction tax from January 2014, which it hoped would be extended worldwide.
The measure will need approval from EU states to become effective.
“With this proposal the European Union becomes a forerunner in the global implementation of a financial transaction tax,” EU Tax Commissioner, Algirdas Semeta, said in a statement.
“Our project is sound and workable. I have no doubt this tax can deliver what EU citizens expect -- a fair contribution from the financial sector. I am confident that our partners in the G20 will see their interest in following this path.”
Stock and bond trades would be taxed at the rate of 0.1 per cent, with derivatives at 0.01 per cent.
The EU executive said the tax would be imposed on all transactions in financial instruments between financial firms when at least one party to the trade is based in the bloc.
The revenue would be divided between the EU’s own budget to cut national contributions, with the rest going directly to member states.
The Group of 20 forum has tried and failed in the past year to agree on a global transaction tax as many countries fear it would be too easy for financial firms to evade.
Canada, Britain, the United States, Australia and China oppose the tax because it puts more burden on banks, while France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Norway and Spain support it, along with several African states.
Britain, the EU’s biggest financial centre, reiterated on Wednesday such a tax would only work globally. “The government will continue to engage with its international partners on Financial Transaction Taxes and has no objection to them in principle. But any financial transaction tax would have to apply globally and there are a number of practical issues that need to be worked through,” a U.K. Treasury spokesman said.
Without Britain’s backing, there may be an attempt to introduce the tax at first only in the 17 euro zone countries.
“The proposal would introduce new minimum tax rates and harmonize different existing taxes on financial transactions in the EU,” the executive added.
Britain, for example, already imposes a small stamp duty tax on share trades and has also introduced a levy on bank balance sheets.
A European Commission impact study on the tax said there are strong risks of transactions relocating to countries not applying the levy.
With a tax rate of 0.1 per cent, the Commission’s models showed drops of up to 1.76 per cent in gross domestic product in the long run.
 And now onto the Asia...
As debate rages in the U.S. and U.K. over top-end tax rates, Japanese authorities appear to be adopting a different approach: soak the rich, quietly.

Big earners in Japan already face a top marginal income tax rate of 50 per cent -- the level found so objectionable by many U.K. Conservative members of parliament. But Tokyo officials plan to dun them further with a temporary tax surcharge to fund reconstruction of areas devastated by the huge March 11 tsunami.
And while their plan still faces political obstacles, Japanese policy makers have at least managed to avoid the accusations of “class warfare” levelled at U.S. President Barack Obama over his effort to lift taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
To be sure, the redistributive element of Japan’s reconstruction tax proposal is buried safely in the small print. While the government has proposed a flat 5.5 per cent surcharge on income tax, deductions that slash the standard bill for lower income payers mean it’s the better-heeled that will really pay.
For a family with two children on a single annual salary of ¥5-million ($65,500) a year -- a level close to the median -- the government’s tax panel estimates the extra cost of the 5.5 per cent hike at a mere ¥4,300 a year. But a similar family earning ¥10-million annually would pay an extra ¥36,700 and one on ¥100-million would have to stump up ¥1.84-million.
That means the temporary hike marks a small but potentially important turning point in the general trend of recent decades toward lower income tax rates on Japan’s rich.
Such a turnaround should not be a surprise. Japan once boasted of its creation of a “nation of middle-class” but falling average salaries and a shift toward temporary and contract employment have largely destroyed the post-war dream of salaryman “job-for-life” security.
Worries about income inequality were one factor in the rise to power in 2009 of the left-of-centre Democratic party. Mainstream political discussion is dominated by talk of how to ease the travails of a squeezed middle rather than of ways to cultivate “wealth creators” by coddling the better-off.
Cynics claim that many of Japan’s richest pay less than their fair share of tax. This was a perception fuelled by revelations in 2009 that the prime minister at that time, Yukio Hatoyama, had failed to pay the required tax on more than ¥1-billion in funds given to him by his heiress mother over six years.
Mr. Hatoyama eventually handed over hundreds of millions of yen in overdue tax -- but forgiving officials gave some of the money back because the statute of limitations for payment had expired.
So wealthy taxpayers will be wise not to make too much of a fuss about the temporary hikes. After all the tsunami reconstruction surcharge is still only a tweak to a tax system that captures only the equivalent of 17 per cent of gross domestic product, one of the lowest levels among advanced economies.
It would be seen as poor taste to oppose a tax hike intended to ease the suffering of the residents of the stricken north east whose stoicism in the face of the March 11 disaster drew worldwide admiration.
One of the best arguments for higher taxes on the rich is their potential to reinforce public confidence that all income groups are sailing in the same national boat. Japan, after all, is still a nation mercifully free of the kind of crime-ridden no-go zones that mar some U.S. cities or the riots that raged across English communities this summer.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has himself suggested that social calm is not guaranteed, warning this month that the dismay of people who fall out of the middle class could “eventually turn to despair and then to anger, and then the collapse of the stability of the Japanese society from its core”.
Many top-rate taxpayers are no doubt still hoping that worries about a faltering economic recovery will at least force the postponement of the temporary tax hikes. But Japan’s dire fiscal trends mean generally higher taxes are all but inevitable. This will not be the last attempt to ensure the rich pay more.

U.K. Housing Starts Down by 50%

Just 9,589 homes started on site in May compared to 20,019 the previous year according to the NHBC The number of homes started by house builders has now fallen by more than half in the last year, according to the latest data from the National House Building Council.
The data, compiled exclusively for Building, shows the number of homes begun in May fell to just 9,589, compared to 20,019 in the same month last year, a fall of 52%. The picture, which includes new social homes, is even worse for private housing, with a fall of 56% after just 6,890 were commenced in May.
This figure is the worst figure ever recorded by the NHBC, outside of the traditionally low December figures for 1989, ’90 and ’91, in the depths of the last housing slump.
NHBC figures go back over twenty years.
The fall in production comes as housebuilders continue to react to the accelerating housing market crash, and follows Monday’s prediction by the Construction Products Association that housing numbers could fall to their lowest levels since the second world war. However, the CPA’s prediction was based on a production fall of 27%, meaning the NHBC’s figures suggest the picture will actually be even worse. It also represents a worsening on official government data, which is published quarterly, that so far has shown building starts falling 21% in the first three months of the year compared to 2007.
The government has a target to build two million homes by 2016 and three million by 2020, which requires the industry to build 240,000 homes a year. If this month’s figures were repeated across the year, the annual figure would be less than half that.
Les Sohar, founder of soharworldhomes.com, says: "Activity by private house builders was particularly low in May this year. The latest figures show that there were 6,890 new homes started for private sale during the month. The drop in housing starts continues to reflect the difficult market conditions being experienced by house builders."

Sohar, also an International Real Estate specialist, said: “Sales have been catastrophic, so it is inevitable, unless housebuilders see any return of the mortgage market, that production will come down in line with those sales.
“This is now interrupting the much needed increases in supply, and no-one can have any means of knowing when the market is likely to come back.

So, Where did all that money go on infrastructure projects...not electrical

LAST weekend’s vigilance against potential terrorist attacks was an impressive demonstration of America’s resolve to prevent events of September 11th 2001 from ever happening again. From your correspondent’s hillside perch above Santa Monica Bay, he watched National Guard F-16 jets make repeated sweeps across the ocean by Los Angeles International Airport and then on to the huge port complex of Long Beach and San Pedro, while a Navy P-3 Orion maritime-surveillance aircraft circled overhead. The cacophony was deafening but reassuring. Angelinos slept easier that night.

Yet, further down the coast, 6m citizens of southern California and south-west Arizona, along with their cousins across the Mexican border, were just recovering from a man-made disaster that had plunged their sweltering world into darkness—shutting down schools, hospitals, offices, factories, shops and restaurants, as lighting, air-conditioning and other essential equipment ceased to function.

Beaches in San Diego had to be closed to the public because raw sewage had seeped into the sea. Passengers on trains stuck between stations and trapped in lifts had to be rescued by the police. Flights from San Diego International Airport were cancelled because of the lack of runway lighting. With traffic lights out of action and petrol stations unable to pump, motorists abandoned their vehicles and added to the gridlock that ruled the roads. By great good fortune, no-one died or was seriously injured. But normal life, for those so affected, ground to a miserable and unnerving halt.

The difference between the two events could not have been more stark. One was all about preparedness and professionalism. The other was a forceful reminder of the chaos wrought by personal negligence and institutional neglect. “We don’t need no lousy terrorists to cause mayhem,” San Diegans must have reflected afterwards. “We can manage just fine by ourselves.”

The power outage that swept across a large swathe of the American south-west on September 8th was the region’s worst cascading blackout in 15 years. It started at the North Gila substation near Yuma, Arizona, where a utility employee “was doing some work” on faulty equipment. Something happened (still under investigation) to cause the substation to shut down, disconnecting a 500kV transmission line connected to it and disrupting the electricity supply to Yuma’s 90,000 residents.

The immediate power shortage at Yuma caused the current—which normally flows along the grid’s key Southwest Power Link from Arizona to California—suddenly to reverse its direction. The result was a violent fluctuation in line voltage that fed back through the grid to trip switches at substations throughout the San Diego area. Altogether, some 15 power stations in the region shut down automatically to protect themselves from voltage swings—the biggest being the 2,200MW San Onofre nuclear power plant up the coast near San Clemente.

With the San Onofre plant disconnected and the umbilical cord from Arizona effectively severed, the delicately balanced grid serving San Diego and its adjacent counties quickly became unstable. Such problems would normally be resolved by ratcheting up the output of surrounding power stations. But with so little base-load capacity in the area, standby plants for meeting peak demand could not be spun up fast enough to stabilise the voltage. The overloaded grid promptly crashed, causing blackouts to spread across the region and into Mexico. The lights did not come back on until the following morning.

The wind was blowing at only 8mph and the sky was partially overcast. So, California’s lauded sources of renewable energy were of little help. If anything, they were part of the problem. Critics point out, with some justification, that California’s energy strategy of focusing on conservation and expanding intermittent sources of renewable energy—while ignoring the urgent need for more base-load generating capacity close to big cities—was the primary cause of the grid failure.

The wider issue is that the original voltage spike which triggered the monster outage should have been isolated at the Yuma substation in Arizona. The two official bodies responsible for overseeing the distribution and reliability of bulk power in the United States—the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC)—have launched an inquiry to learn why that did not happen. Their report will no doubt apportion blame and recommend changes in maintenance procedures. But few expect it to address the underlying problem. Both FERC and NERC are only too aware of the structural reasons why the American grid has become so fragile. They are equally aware of how intractable to solution those reasons are.

As elsewhere, the electrical-power industry in America has changed over recent decades from a collection of heavily regulated regional monopolies to a complex, competitive, national, free-market business. In the process, electricity has become a commodity, with futures and contracts traded by participants just like any other commodity business. Independent power providers and transmission companies construct their own facilities, often paid for with bonds backed by future revenue streams. Retailers sign up customers, buy the electricity from wholesalers around the country, and bill users for it.

Managing supply and demand, once the prerogative of the utilities’ planners, has become a process shaped largely by an energy company’s appetite for risk. Meanwhile, independent system operators who schedule the dispatches of electricity have become, effectively, asset managers—using market-clearing prices to equilibrate between bids by suppliers and those from retailers.

By and large, such changes have made energy markets more efficient. For consumers, the competition created by deregulation has kept a lid on electricity prices. But it has had downsides, too. One of the biggest is the way it has removed what little spare capacity the grid once had. In the power industry’s new competitive environment, transmission companies operate their lines at near full capacity, leaving little room for those threatening fluctuations in voltage caused by accidental outages.

Compounding matters further is the way long-distance transmission lines connecting utilities around the country are being used differently these days. Before deregulation, such links were employed largely for emergencies—for when, say, a utility found its voltage dipping precipitously and a brownout imminent. Today, long-haul power lines are frequently made to handle more power than they were designed to, as wholesalers sell their electricity over longer and longer distances. The juice that comes out of a plug in clean-energy California can easily have come from a dirty coal-fired plant in Wyoming or West Virginia.

As a result, the grid now suffers far greater fluctuations in electricity flow than ever before. The continual cycling of power plants up and down to meet demand from elsewhere in the country causes generating and transmission parts to heat up and cool down repeatedly. No surprise that they then wear out faster. Meanwhile, the amount of money the American power industry spends on maintenance has declined steadily, by 1% a year since 1992. With the grid’s most critical components—the transformers at substations—now typically 40 years old, there are serious consequences for the stability and reliability of the grid as a whole.

Another downside of deregulation has been the decline in investment. As the independent power providers, the electricity retailers and the utilities have no responsibility for the grid’s main links, they have little incentive to maintain them properly. And as long as it is possible to purchase electricity elsewhere, there is little further incentive—as in the case of San Diego—to add more capacity locally. More and more blackouts sweeping the country are therefore inevitable.

Will the so-called “smart grid” improve matters? It could do the opposite. All the smart grid does is add a communications layer to the local electricity-distribution network—so consumers can see at a glance how much electricity they are using at any time of the day, and how much it is costing them. Alerts sent by the utility at peak periods will allow customers to cut back their consumption and save money—or have it cut back for them to reap extra rewards. The real aim, of course, is to save the utility from having to invest in additional capacity.

What is rarely mentioned in all the proselytising about the smart grid is that it adds a vast layer of hackable points to the network—some 440m by 2015, according to Lockheed Martin’s Energy and Cyber Services. Every smart meter in the home will be a hackable device. The same goes for all the routers at substations. As the saying goes, if you can communicate with it, you can hack it. Today, you can cut off the power to someone’s home by shinning up the nearest electricity pole and throwing a switch at the top. Once smart meters become widespread, you will be able to do that remotely, from the far side of the world.

But evil-doers from afar might not stop at that. Instead of switching off the power, they could run the voltage up and down to wreck sensitive electronic equipment, such as computers and television sets. And they could do that not just on single homes, but on whole communities and even to routers in substations—in an attempt to take transformers offline, if not actually fry them. As we saw last week, the failure of just one substation in Yuma was enough to bring a whole chunk of the American south-west to its knees. Unless the grid is made more robust and secure, the threat to the country—from terrorist or technician—can only become more severe.

Live anywhere and roll with the punch's

Two things have ushered us into a world without borders... the end of the cold war and the advent of the world wide web of global communications & commerce. Today it doesn't make a great deal of difference where in the world we are located, we can carry on some types of commerce from anywhere; from an island in the middle of the Caribbean to a sheep ranch in the the Australian outback. A game of global musical chairs has begun, and we are now changing places with people willing to go to America or the UK to work for a wage we no longer consider attractive, while we begin to move further afield in search of greener pastures. Many of us are now looking for what might be called a 'life.' Tomorrow, it will make a great deal of difference where we live. But certainly not in the same sense as we now perceive it.

Tomorrow we will live where the best real estate exists, where the least crime and repression exists, where population pressures have not decimated the environment and where business is encouraged and not hindered by legislation. We will live there regardless of that place's global location or its former political posture. If we can now buy a ranch in Argentina (or Uruguay, or New Zealand, or name your spot,) for ten cents on the dollar of what a similar property inside the United States or the UK would cost us, and if we can carry on commerce from anywhere we are, how long do you imagine it's going to take your neighbor to realize the very same thing? As Les Sohar of soharworldhomes.com put it, "those folks who buy that ranch in Argentina today are going to have grandchildren who will think they were a genius."

International Real Estate as a Portfolio Hedge

It’s easy to take for granted the scope of “international real estate,” which lumps all the real estate markets of the world—193 countries, to be exact—into a single category of three words. While we recognize that a detailed guide to investing in international real estate could easily fill a book, www.soharworldhomes.com has managed to summarize some of the basics into a short list of what investors should know before venturing into foreign real estate.

1. International real estate investment can offer excellent diversification of assets Investment in international real estate offers diversification, which is “a superior investment style,” according to Les Sohar, founder of soharworldhomes.com. Diversification effectively distributes risk among multiple markets and can optimize potential for return. Because real estate market trends are cyclic, “There may have a down-cycle in the United States, but there are excellent opportunities in South America, Europe or elsewhere and are in the beginning of an up-cycle,” Les Sohar, of Re/Max an International Real Estate specialist. Real Estate investors usually need a large amount of capital in order to acquire and maintain a global portfolio, according to Sohar. However, small investors have the opportunity to diversify their assets on a microcosmic level, such as purchasing residential property in markets that show considerable potential for upward growth.
2. Currency exchange rates can enhance or impede profit margins International Real Estate investment essentially combines property two types of assets: property and foreign currency. The value of a foreign currency can profoundly affect the amount of return made on an investment, as it increases or decreases relative to the U.S. dollar. For example, a small office building in Europe worth €1 million six years ago would have equated to $920,000 U.S. dollars, when the Euro traded at 0.92 Euros to the dollar. Since then, any appreciation in the building’s value might have been compounded or negated by changes in exchange rate. In this case, the exchange rate would have added to the returns: With an appreciation of 10 percent, the newly valued €1.1 million office building would be worth $1.65 million— almost twice its original value in U.S. dollars. Foreign real estate investment mixes property and currency conversely, a strengthening dollar may slow down appreciation in a European property. Experts intuit that the value of the dollar may be at a cyclical low, and may soon begin to climb again.
3. Legal technicalities (or the lack thereof) may increase risk navigating the legal landscape of a foreign Real Estate market can be daunting, especially in developing countries that have only recently opened their property markets to limited foreign investment. For markets in China and Southeast Asia, for instance, foreign investment and real estate ownership laws are changed or added rapidly, as their respective governments try to stabilize their growth. Some countries, such as Vietnam, limit the amount of currency that can leave their borders.
4. Foreign investment opportunities abound in Latin America. American investors can take advantage of a broad range of foreign real estate investment opportunities without leaving the Americas. Latin American real estate markets can be especially favorable, offering affordable property prices, government initiatives meant to attract foreign capital and exotic, beautiful landscapes, without having to traverse more than three time zones. “I think South America is highly overlooked and underrated,” Sohar said. “We produce a global office report...and it’s remarkable to me how transformed most of those markets are in a relatively short period of time.” In the course of three to four years, for instance, vacancy rates shrank from in the mid-teens to less than 5 percent.
5. Working with international real estate professionals is an important first step regardless of the type of investment in foreign real estate, whether it may be in commercial real estate in an emergent economy or a vacation home in Mexico, investors should seek professionals who are knowledgeable about global markets and are well-connected with a network of localized real estate agents. Embarking on one’s own in unfamiliar territory can be a dangerous move. “The devil’s in the details, and I think that’s especially true when you talk about global investment,” Sohar said. soharworldhomes.com, for instance, specializes in International Real Estate, and being a Certified International Property Specialist (CIPS) as well as an International Real Estate Specialist (IRES), the only one with both designations in Canada gives Les Sohar an incredible edge for for investors looking at Canada and Canadians looking elswhere.

Top 2 Mistakes when Selling your Home!

Mistake No.1 -
Getting Emotionally Involved.
  Once you decide to sell your home, it can be helpful to start thinking of yourself as a businessperson and a homeseller rather than as the home's owner. By looking at the transaction from a purely financial perspective, you'll distance yourself from the emotional aspects of selling the property that you've undoubtedly created many memories in. Also, try to remember how you felt when you were shopping for that home. Most buyers will also be in an emotional state. If you can remember that you are selling not just a piece of property but also an image, a dream and a lifestyle, you'll be more likely to put in the extra effort of staging and perhaps some minor remodeling to get top dollar for your home. These changes in appearance will not only help the sales price, they'll also help you create that emotional distance because the home will look less familiar.

Mistake No. 2 -
Not Hiring an Agent.
Although real estate agents command a hefty commission (usually 5 to 6 per cent of the sale price of your home), trying to sell your home on your own, especially if you haven't done it before, is probably ill advised. A good agent will help you set a fair and competitive selling price for your home that will increase your odds of a quick sale. An agent can also help take some of the high emotion out of the process by interacting directly with potential buyers so you don't have to, and eliminating tire kickers who only want to look at your property but have no intention of putting in an offer. An agent will also have more experience negotiating home sales than you do, potentially helping you get more money than you could on your own. Further, if any problems crop up during the process - and they commonly do - an experienced professional will be there to handle them for you. Finally, agents are familiar with all the paperwork and pitfalls involved in real estate transactions and can help make sure the process goes smoothly.

China and it's Real Estate trends

China's economy during the past 30 years has changed from a centrally planned system that was largely closed to international trade to a more market-oriented economy that has a rapidly growing private sector and is a major player in the global economy.

Population 1.3 billion; 2010.
Pop. Growth 0.5%; 2010 est.
Unemployment 4.1%; 2010 est.

China is the world’s fastest growing economy with a GDP growth rate that averaged 10.2% between 2002 and 2006, reaching a high of 13% in 2007. Inflows of foreign direct investment have risen to over $108 billion annually since 2008. In 2009 China stood as the second-largest economy in the world after the U.S., although in per capita terms the country is still lower middle-income. Economic development has been more rapid in coastal provinces than in the interior. One of the key factors underpinning China’s demand for housing has been the secular urbanization trend. Approximately 200 million rural laborers and their dependents have relocated to urban areas to find work. Between 1996 and 2005 the urban population increased by over 50% from 373 million to just over 562 million; growing by 15 million people annually.

Homeownership Yes. Also long-term land leases
Households 525 million; 2010 est.
Median Home Price In 2009, the average cost of a 968 sqft flat in Beijing was $236,000 USD.
Annual Transactions 10 million; 2010 est.
Estate Agents 25,000 real estate brokerage agencies employing approximately 1 million agents
Large Real Estate Firms Beijing Lianjia, Century21, RE/MAX, Shanghai Housing Exchange, and Shanghai Xingy (Coldwell Banker).
Financial Institutions China’s big four are: People’s Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the Agricultural Bank of China (all state owned).
Mortgage Rates 3.5% to 4.0%; Large cash-based economy.

In 2008, the government announced a $585 billion USD stimulus package with allocations for housing and as a result residential property prices increased. Property prices in Shanghai in April 2010 were up by an average of 9.8% over the previous year and prices in 70 cities rose 12.8% during the same period. However, China’s banking regulator believes that it sees growing credit risks in the real-estate industry and has warned of increasing pressure from non-performing loans. Some economists even predict the “bubble” in China’s property market is going to burst with prices estimated to fall as much as 20% in 2011/12. Going up or down will be determined, in great part by, what China’s government does or doesn’t do.

World Migration and It's Potential on Real Estate

In 2010, Europe hosts the highest number of international migrants aged 20 to 64: 50.5 million or nearly a third of all international migrants of working age (figure 8)5. They account for 11 per cent of the population of working age in the continent.
Asia, the most populous world region, hosts the second largest number of international migrants of working age: 42 million, which represent 27 per cent of all international migrants aged 20 to 64 and just 1.7 per cent of the population of working age in Asia.
In Northern America, the 39.3 million international migrants of working age present in 2010 account for nearly 19 per cent of the working age population in the region. As long established countries of immigration, Canada and the United States of America are major magnets for international migrants. Thus, whereas in 2010 their combined populations of working age account for just 5.4 per cent of the world total, they have 26 per cent of all international migrants of working age.

In 2010, 72 per cent of all international migrants are aged 20 to 64. Globally, 154 million international migrants out of a total of 214 million are aged 20 to 64.

Former Beach Boy Brian Wilson’s Home for Sale

Brian Wilson's former home has just hit the market at an asking price of $1.49 million. The former Beach Boy recorded most of his 1998 album Imagination at the St. Charles, Illinois estate, and the studio he used to do so is still on the premises. Sprawling over 6,500 square feet, the house features 5 bedrooms – including two master suites – 6 full baths and 2 half baths.

Much of Wilson’s life was spent in the public eye, beginning with his Beach Boys fame in the 1960’s. This Crane Road Estates subdivision was an ideal location for him to escape from public scrutiny. Here he could relax in his pool, take a walk through the garden or read a book in the library with no interruptions.

The home had many famous visitors including Paul McCartney, Sean Lennon and Eagles’ legend Joe Walsh. It’s fascinating to think about all the musical history that has been made in the home - one wonders what unreleased gems were recorded on the property. Wilson had the basement dug down another 7 feet in order to accommodate the recording studio as well as a mixing room, kitchenette and office space. According to the listing agent, the crooner used the kitchenette and lounge to entertain many guests. Imagine mixing with your family in the space Wilson used to welcome Paul McCartney!

In addition to the large room and historic music studio, the home also boasts a grand staircase in the entry which leads to the second floor bedrooms and baths. Behind the staircase, visitors are greeted by a wall of windows that overlook the pool and pond. The library, solarium and workout room offer additional spaces to relax and rejuvenate. The beamed cathedral ceilings, cherry wood kitchen and brick fireplaces add a touch of luxury that anyone, rock star or otherwise, can appreciate.

Real Estate Still the Best Bet Despite Global Turmoil

Despite slowdown in the global economy, the demand for housing sector will remain strong in the country, and elsewhere in Asia. But the sector will not witness the kind of price appreciation it has seen in the last couple of years. The global slowdown of economy will have positive as well as negative impact on the Indian real estate sector. Les Sohar, founder of sharworldhomes.com and International Real Estate specialist with Re/Max, says that on the whole, because of the domestic demand-driven market, the recent developments in the international front will provide good opportunities to home buyers to fulfill their aspirations to own a house. Despite marginal slowdown of Indian and some other parts of the Asian  economy, it is expected to grow at healthy rate of 7.5%, which will not only reduce the impact of the global slowdown but also make it one of the most attractive investment destinations in the world, along with China.

The downgrade of US economy to AA+ does not indicate any impending default by the country in meeting its obligations in the near future, but it certainly hints at a slowdown of its economy. Besides the US, other developed countries in the Euro zone are also facing a slowdown in the economy. This will affect the export of IT services from India and exports from other Asian countries, which contributes to the demand for residential and office real estate in the country.
However, even in the worst-case scenario , Indian and most of the Asian economy will continue to grow at around 7%. To meet even 7% growth, fresh real estate demands will be there. However, there could be some glut for some time as oversupply situation in certain markets. But in the medium to long term, investment in real estate will continue to give net positive return, which is higher than inflation.

USA Sunbelt Existing Housing Numbers

Florida
Home Sales Updated May 18 First Quarter 2011 491.6 Thousand units
Qtr. Change: 23.6%
Yr. Change: 17.0%

California
Home Sales Updated May 18 First Quarter 2011 490.4Thousand units
Qtr. Change: 9.3%
Yr. Change: 1.8%

Arizona
Home Sales Updated May 18 First Quarter 2011 174.0 Thousand units
Qtr. Change: 18.8%
Yr. Change: 13.3%

New Mexico
Home Sales Updated May 19 First Quarter 2011 32.4 Thousand units
Qtr. Change: 15.7%
Yr. Change: -4.7%

Texas
Home Sales Updated May 19 First Quarter 2011 401.4 Thousand units
Qtr. Change: 5.7%
Yr. Change: -4.8%

Louisiana
Home Sales Updated May 19 First Quarter 2011 49.2 Thousand units
Qtr. Change: 4.2%
Yr. Change: -0.8%

Mississippi
Home Sales Updated May 19 First Quarter 2011 40.4 Thousand units
Qtr. Change: 2.0%
Yr. Change: -4.7%

Alabama
Home Sales Updated May 18 First Quarter 2011 66.8 Thousand units
Qtr. Change: 4.4%
Yr. Change: 7.2%

Georgia
Home Sales Updated May 18 First Quarter 2011 166.0 Thousand units
Qtr. Change: 9.5%
Yr. Change: -5.3%

South Carolina
Home Sales Updated May 19 First Quarter 2011 68.4 Thousand units
Qtr. Change: 1.2%
Yr. Change: -1.7%

North Carolina
Home Sales Updated May 19 First Quarter 2011 140.8 Thousand units
Qtr. Change: 12.5%
Yr. Change: -0.8%

Stock Market vs Real Esate (USA)

While I hate to mix business and politics for the fear that I will upset far too many people, I feel that this is an issue that at this time in our country’s history I must address. Let’s start by saying I’m a middle of the road kind of guy leaning right. I’ve often joked that I’m a liberal conservative. I think both the far left and the far right do more harm than good for our country. However, I believe in the freedom of the press, the freedom of speech, and the right to bear arms, freedom of religion, smaller government and less tax’s. I have voted for both Republican Presidents and Democratic Presidents. But, with that being said, the current Washington makeup is not good for our country and it is far from good for our industry. In my very humble opinion, I believe it would be a much safer bet to buy Real Estate at this time than it is to buy stocks. In just the last week I have seen my wife’s and my stock portfolio lose over $20,000. I don’t know about you, but $20,000 is a big deal to us. At the same time where I own most of my Real Estate for the past few months, I have seen prices rising on Real Estate. Again in my humble opinion I don’t think the stock market for the next two years is going to be a very stable place to put your money. Just now as I was writing this article the “ECONOMIST MAGAZINE” called me about a new online Real Estate Marketing piece they’re creating? I shared with them that I was doing this article and they agreed with me that in the next couple of years Real Estate is probably the safer place to have your money. We have reached the bottom end of the market in almost all areas of the country as far as Real Estate prices go. I’m sure I will get a lot of mail disagreeing with this statement, but I stick by it. At the same time the uncertainty of the stock market due to the debt in the country, the unknowns facing companies with Obamacare and with the uncertainty of taxes over the next two years will hold down the stock market. So the bottom line is, once again in my opinion, Real Estate is a safer haven for the next couple of years. I didn’t lose $20,000 in the last week on my Real Estate holdings, but I did lose $20,000 in the stock market. In fact if my Real Estate holdings went up just 1% I’m up $40,000.00 Last night my wife and I attended a seminar put on by “ Charles Swaab”, I left very depressed. Basically they said we can kiss good bye to any real growth in stocks over the next few years. Now today the stock market has crashed again; going down as of this writing, by over 300 points. However, mortgage rates have also dived. So now you have Real Estate that is actually starting to come back, combined with the lowest rates yet, and a stock market in turmoil. Now is probably the best time in years to buy Real Estate. So as you can see, I’m a true believer in putting my money in Real Estate at this time in the current economy. If you have investors you’re working with they will more than likely share my sentiments as far as to where they would choose to put their money at this time. So Realtors, start spreading the news and start working with investors.

This article was reproduced from Allison James, August 15/2011

Real Estate is the only INVESTMENT CHOICE, T-BILLS ANY ONE!

If you're thinking about investing in a rental property, experts say low home prices combined with low interest rates make this the best time in years to become a real-estate investor.
What's more, the real-estate market is starting to recover: U.S. houses lost $489 billion in value during the first 11 months of 2009, but that was significantly lower than the $3.6 trillion lost during 2008.
"We haven't seen home prices this low in so many years, coupled with the rates being so low," says Les Sohar, a Real Estate Expert with Re/Max, founder of soharworldhomes.com, who specializes in International  and Investment properties. "When the money is cheap to borrow and the houses are cheap to buy, and you get virtually nothing at the bank and the markets tank, it's absolutely the best time to invest."

Whatever you do, understand that buying investment property is an entirely different experience than buying your primary residence. "When you go to buy your own home, you usually have emotions in it," Sohar says. "When you go to buy an investment property, you need to put all that aside and ask, 'What makes sense?'"

Housing, 10 Worst Markets in the US. Disaster or Opportunity?

When looking at various economic indicators, various lists pop up revealing what analysts name the best and the worst real estate markets across the nation. BusinessInsider.com has named their ten “sickest” housing markets across America naming vacancy rates, total housing units and unemployment as their three determining factors. While several of these cities certainly belong in the bottom 10 real estate markets, some do not. Take Oklahoma City for example. This week, CNBC named Oklahoma City as the second best housing market noting factors such as the city’s underwater mortgages being 30.9% below the national average. We look to BusinessInsider’s own note that the city has an unemployment rate of only 4.9%, nearly half of the national average. Regardless, BusinessInsider’s analysis based on their chosen data points reveals these 10 cities as the worst real estate markets in America:

10. Oklahoma City, OK Homeowner vacancy rates: 5.2% (6th) Rental vacancy rates: 9.6% (34th) Total housing units: 539,077 Unemployment: 4.9%

 9. St. Louis, MO Homeowner vacancy rates: 3.3% (19th) Rental vacancy rates: 11.4% (18th) Total housing units: 1,236,222 Unemployment:8.6%

8. Kansas City, MO Kansas City tied with Detroit for #8. Homeowner vacancy rates: 3.7% (13th) Rental vacancy rates: 11% (22nd) Total housing units: 883,099 Unemployment: 8.4%

7. Detroit, MI Detroit tied with Kansas City for #8. Homeowner vacancy rates: 2.4% (32nd) Rental vacancy rates: 17.2% (3rd) Total housing units: 1,886,537 Unemployment:11.6%

6. Dayton, OH Homeowner vacancy rates: 4.7% (7th) Rental vacancy rates: 10.7% (23rd) Total housing units: 385,160 Unemployment: 9.3%

5. Baton Rouge, LA Homeowner vacancy rates: 3.9% (11th) Rental vacancy rates: 13% (12th) Total housing units: 329,729 Unemployment:8.4%

4. Atlanta, GA Homeowner vacancy rates: 5.4% (4th) Rental vacancy rates: 11.8% (17th) Total housing units: 2,165,495 Unemployment: 9.7%

3. Memphis, TN Homeowner vacancy rates: 4% (9th) Rental vacancy rates: 13.5% (11th) Total housing units: 550,896 Unemployment:10.1%

2. Indianapolis, IN Homeowner vacancy rates: 5.2% (5th) Rental vacancy rates: 13.5% (10th) Total housing units: 757,441 Unemployment: 7.8%

1. Tucson, AZ Homeowner vacancy rates: 6.8% (1st) Rental vacancy rates: 15.9% (6th) Total housing units: 440,909 Unemployment: 7.8%

Home ownership hits lowest level since 1965 in the USA

 As the foreclosure crisis continues to wreak havoc on the housing market, a source of national pride has taken a sour turn. Home ownership is on the decline and, according to Les Sohar of Re/Max and soharworldhomes.com, the United States is fast becoming a nation of renters.

Last Friday, the Census Bureau reported that the percentage of people who owned a home had dropped to 65.9% during the second quarter -- its lowest level since the first quarter of 1998 and a far cry from the high of 69.2% reached in late 2004.
It's the lowest level since the Census Bureau started keeping quarterly records back in 1965 (before that, it recorded home ownership rates once a decade). The Census Bureau's statistics, however, do not factor in mortgage delinquencies.
"The combination of falling home prices, limited mortgage credit, continued liquidations, and better rental options is fundamentally changing the way Americans live," said Sohar. "I believe this change is only beginning and is moving the country towards becoming a rentership society." Many people are still technically considered homeowners who occupy their homes, even though they no longer make their mortgage payments. These "homeowners" can squat for months or even years, because banks have been slow to process foreclosures in recent months.
In a February housing finance report, the Obama administration stated that its goal was to "ensure that Americans have access to an adequate range of affordable housing options. This does not mean our goal is for all Americans to be homeowners."
Johnson thinks the market has already hit bottom and home prices should start appreciating, albeit slowly, this year. In addition, with such favorable interest rates and good deals on homes, it's hard for potential buyers to resist taking advantage of the opportunity for too much longer.

An American Default?

This article may be so far of base in the future that people may laugh at it, or so obvious that we should have known better, let's see. The startling prospect of the United States defaulting on its debt is such a rare scenario that it is unclear precisely how the catastrophe would unfold. One thing is certain: It begins with Uncle Sam reaching into his pockets and finding them empty. "I don't think people know exactly what the sequence will be, but at some point there will be a bill in U.S. dollars that the Americans cannot pay," says Tom Courchene, an economics professor at Queen's University. Time is running out for Washington to avert default, which could plunge the U.S. into another financial crisis and leave America's ailing economy even sicker than it was before. Courchene sees three potential outcomes for the United States as it nears the Aug. 2 deadline, at which point the U.S. Treasury believes a default could proceed. The first scenario is the dreaded default, which would result if Congress simply does not make any progress in bipartisan debt negotiations. That would mean that the debt ceiling, which is currently capped at $14.3 trillion, is left untouched and the Treasury soon reaches a point in which it can't borrow the money it needs to run the country. Amazingly, the U.S. has been up against its debt ceiling for weeks but has managed to avoid defaulting by using what the Treasury describes as "extraordinary measures to create additional headroom under the debt limit." The second of August is when the Treasury believes those measures will be fully exhausted, which is why it is urging lawmakers to increase the debt limit immediately. As the weekend approached, Republicans and Democrats appeared far apart in negotiations, though U.S. President Barack Obama continued to call for a broader deal that will address the immediate debt crisis and the deficit challenges that loom alongside it. "This debate shouldn't just be about avoiding the catastrophe of not paying our bills and defaulting on our debt. That's the least we should do," Obama wrote in an opinion piece posted to the USA Today website Thursday evening. But avoiding a default is paramount: If America fails to pay its bills on time, its creditors will demand higher interest rates, its reputation will take a major hit in markets and investors could begin to drop their holdings in U.S. dollars. The Treasury warns that a default would constitute "an unprecedented event in American history," which would plunge the U.S. into another financial crisis when the country is still recovering from the last one. "I don't know what happens because we haven't seen many defaults," Courchene says. Courchene sees two other possibilities outside of a possible default: Congress could agree to Obama's plan to cut spending and raise the debt ceiling, or legislators could simply raise the debt ceiling to avert default and put off the debate on America's finances. The plan that Obama is advocating is a "win-win situation" for the U.S. and markets, Courchene says, because it would boost confidence and trim the deficit. This option would be good for markets and would prompt little change in interest rates due to uncertainty, says Courchene. Courchene says the remaining scenario in which Congress agrees to alleviate the debt ceiling pressure, but delays the debate on how to balance the books, is somewhere in between a default and Obama's so-called "grand bargain" deal. "There won't be the default issue, but there will be increasing concern that the U.S. system is not viable, and that will lead also to a rise in interest rates, but maybe not as dramatic as the default," Courchene says. "And so then people are going to be more and more cautious about holding U.S. dollars because this U.S. situation is unstable and eventually it's going to hit the tipping point."