Housing Market

Just wanted to post a quick note following up on some of the housing comments I’ve made both here and in Dividend Superstars.
Along with all the other reasons I’ve been citing to remain skeptical of a housing recovery, you can add to the list higher mortgage rates. The 30-year fixed rate is now firmly above [...]

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The latest numbers from S&P/Case-Shiller’s housing index prove that things haven’t gotten any better for housing in 2009. In fact, the data shows that prices declined 19.1% in the first quarter of the year (following an 18.2% drop in Q4 2008)! Remember, this index is an extremely good indicator of what’s actually happening in the [...]

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I was down at Weiss headquarters last week, and during my trip I drove around visiting a lot of my old haunts. And I can tell you that the for-sale signs haven’t gone away at all in the five months that I’ve been spending time up north.
If anything, there are still plenty of places available at even lower prices!
And today’s data [...]

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We had a bunch of free JetBlue tickets available, so my wife and I decided to use them all in one shot with a family trip to Puerto Rico. Because we took Vela (our 21-month-old daughter) as well as my mother, we had to find a place that could accomodate everyone.
Luckily, I found a great deal on an oceanfront condo that was [...]

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I just finished reading this story on CNN about a foreclosure court in Fort Myers, Florida.
The story explains that this foreclosure court is the place where people officially lose their homes. And as you’d expect, it is largely written from a “woe are all these people” angle.
Make no mistake, I do have sympathy for anyone who is losing a home [...]

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As you might know, I recently relocated my family from Florida back up to the Brandywine Valley along the border of Pennsylvania and Delaware. 
And while we decided to rent for the first year, my wife and I have been looking around at what’s on the market in our new area.
House hunting has become somewhat of a real hobby [...]

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The year got off to a strong start. In fact, it was the fourth best opening day for stocks (as measured by the S&P 500) ever.
No, that doesn’t mean a heck of a lot. But it is worth noting that January is typically a good indicator for stock performance over the entire year:
According to S&P, [...]

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I was at my in-laws’ house in Delaware this past weekend, reading their local paper. One of the stories was about Sussex County’s pension fund (again, the Sussex County in DE, not NJ).
According to the story (couldn’t find it online), the county decided to put the majority of its new money into cash for the coming year. Then [...]

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